Here's the thing, I am starting to realize I may have allowed Lili a smidgen too much freedom in her everyday choices. I have never been particularly strict about clothes, shoes and hair. My thought has always been "As long as they are dressed and their hair was brushed at some point in the last 24 hours, I am doing great!" Chloe and Emma both understood that they can make these choices, and most of the time, I am okay with them. As they have gotten older, they have been very responsible, sometimes brushing their hair twice in a 24 hour period, and almost always wearing matching outfits. Actually, to Emma's credit, she brushes her hair more than any child I have ever seen. She takes the "Marsha Brady" approach to hair care, I often catch her counting, "87, 88, 89..." Yep, all the way up to 100. But I regress, back to Lili...As I have mentioned before, she is definitely the most free-spirited of all my girls, and as we were getting ready to take Emma to a doctors appointment yesterday, I started to think that perhaps I need to reign her in...
It all started with Lili wanting curly hair, now for those of you who don't know, Lili has the straightest hair ever. So she found the sponge rollers, let me put them in and slept in them. Great, now she looks like Shirley Temple, Step one complete. Step two: What to wear? A Tutu, of course. After a lengthy conversation about the appropriateness(or lack there of) of wearing a see through skirt to the doctors office, Lili figured it out. She needed the WHOLE outfit, leotard and all. Not just any leotard, the pink and purple sparkly one with the HUGE pink tutu, perfect!
Sparkly pink shoes are just the finishing touch this ensemble needs, now we can go. Luckily we have to go to school to pick Emma up a little early. That means there are 700 potential sets of eyes that can see Lili in all her pink tutu glory! Yeah for us! After making it down the hall with only a handful of curious glances, we make it to Emma's class room just in time for all the kids, in the whole school, to come in from recess. Great.
Here's the interesting part; no one seems particularly surprised to see Lili in this outfit. Hmmm.
Off we go, me, Emma and Miss Tutu herself. We are stopped by a group of teachers along the way and one of them says, "I always love to see what Lili will be wearing" (Fabulous, she's notorious) another teacher asked "oh, is she on her way to dance?" a very logical question considering the outfit. I respond, "Nope, we're on our way to the doctor". I can see their minds working, hoping against hope that we are going to see the psychologist, little do they know the appointment isn't even for me or Lili.
We make it to the doctors office with only a few curious glances from passengers in other cars, but this could be from the fact that we have all of the windows down and the "High School Musical 2" soundtrack blaring while we all, yes, even me, sing along at the top of our lungs. After a painfully long wait, we get to see the doctor, who tells Lili she looks lovely and is so glad she dressed up to come see her. No look of horror that I could possibly let her leave the house in that, no condescending glance implying I am the worst Mom ever, just a simple compliment to my funny, independent, outgoing 4 year old. And I realize, this lady is a Doctor, she had to go to school for a LONG time, she's really smart, and she doesn't think I 'm a bad mom. In fact, I think she approves of my parenting. I am so pleased I can hardly think straight. In fact, I feel so good about this whole tutu thing, I may wear one the next time I have an appointment,...then again, probably not. (By the way, Emma is fine, at least as "fine" as she can be with me as her Mom)
Friday, September 7, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Editing at it's best!
I feel as though I need to explain the title of my blog "What The..." This phrase is a favorite around our household and it all started a couple of years ago with my nephew, Jake. Much to my delight, and my sisters dismay, Jake preferred to add a "what the HE**" to everything he said. Here are some examples: "Jake, it's time to get dressed" Jake's response, "What the He**!", "Jake, do you want to go outside?", Jake's response, "Sure, what the He**!" As you can see, this caused a bit of a problem for my sister. Turns out most people don't think a 3 year old swearing is very funny.
Now while my sister was going through this parenting challenge, I would sit and listen to her lament over how to deal with Jake, all the while giggling to myself that she finally had a "difficult" child. (Her oldest, Noah, is relatively easy going). She had experienced many laughs over the differences between our oldest daughter Chloe, and middle daughter, Emma. Emma tends to be a bit more vocal about her opinions, causing me to constantly question the benefits of multiple children. Since Jake is a couple of years younger than Emma, it was nice to see my older, wiser sister experiencing some, shall we say, challenging moments in parenting.
But, because my sister is one of the most determined people I know, she and Jake were able to come up with a compromise they both could live with, hence the saying "What the?!" Yeah! Jake had learned the art of clever editing!
Fast forward a few years, we now have our third daughter(and I thought 2 was a challange), Lili, who makes Emma look like a saint. Not that she is particularly bad, she is just slightly more determined to make sure we don't forget her, EVER! Lili has developed her own way to do pretty much everything. She prefers to wear clothes that twirl, even if that means putting pants on with both of her legs in one hole. While she is perfectly capable of talking, she prefers to sing, EVERYTHING, and, at 4 years old, she has decided that the whole world is better covered in glitter. Unfortunately, this need to make a statement has recently crossed over into her language skills. After a wind storm the other day, Lili walked outside to see her play hut tipped over. In front of me, her sisters, a neighbor and all of her kids, Lili asked in her loudest "outside" voice, "What the HE** happened to my play hut?" Needless to say I will be calling my nephew to get some tips on clever editing.
Now while my sister was going through this parenting challenge, I would sit and listen to her lament over how to deal with Jake, all the while giggling to myself that she finally had a "difficult" child. (Her oldest, Noah, is relatively easy going). She had experienced many laughs over the differences between our oldest daughter Chloe, and middle daughter, Emma. Emma tends to be a bit more vocal about her opinions, causing me to constantly question the benefits of multiple children. Since Jake is a couple of years younger than Emma, it was nice to see my older, wiser sister experiencing some, shall we say, challenging moments in parenting.
But, because my sister is one of the most determined people I know, she and Jake were able to come up with a compromise they both could live with, hence the saying "What the?!" Yeah! Jake had learned the art of clever editing!
Fast forward a few years, we now have our third daughter(and I thought 2 was a challange), Lili, who makes Emma look like a saint. Not that she is particularly bad, she is just slightly more determined to make sure we don't forget her, EVER! Lili has developed her own way to do pretty much everything. She prefers to wear clothes that twirl, even if that means putting pants on with both of her legs in one hole. While she is perfectly capable of talking, she prefers to sing, EVERYTHING, and, at 4 years old, she has decided that the whole world is better covered in glitter. Unfortunately, this need to make a statement has recently crossed over into her language skills. After a wind storm the other day, Lili walked outside to see her play hut tipped over. In front of me, her sisters, a neighbor and all of her kids, Lili asked in her loudest "outside" voice, "What the HE** happened to my play hut?" Needless to say I will be calling my nephew to get some tips on clever editing.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Carpentry is clearly not my thing
So my husband, Tom, and I decided to do some minor home improvements over this holiday weekend. The plan was clear and concise: move the existing fence which divides our front and back yards forward to the edge of the garage, thus giving us room to expand our garden. Now in my head I visualize us easily(KEY WORD) moving this 12 ft section of fencing forward, and then placing a few(KEY WORD) new pieces of fencing along the side to join the two sections. After about 10 minutes of watching Tom unscrew cedar planks, I realized this was NOT going to be the fun-filled family activity I had imagined.
I think now is the time to mention that our daughters were SO on board this project. All three of them were ready to jump in and "help". That lasted about 5 minutes.
Back to the fence...so we get the original fence down, new posts set and I am feeling pretty darn good. We have been working on this project together for a couple of hours and so far we haven't fought over my inability to use a drill, or the fact that the six hammers we own have all gone on a mysterious vacation to the land of the lost. The only incident has been when our 8 year old, Emma, realized she hates manual labor and would rather clean the entire house than work in the yard. So we move on to phase two, attaching the fence boards(picket's perhaps?) to the frame.(I am fully aware of the fact that there are correct terms for all of theses things, my lack of knowledge will become abundantly clear here in a minute...) Tom and I have come up with a brilliant plan, I will place the boards, using a spacer between each one and he will follow along and drill them into place. We couldn't believe how fast this went, we worked together like a finely tuned machine. The fence was finished in record time...but wait, turns out putting up a fence is one thing, putting up a STRAIGHT fence is a totally different thing.
Tom and I stepped back to inspect our handy work, and couldn't believe what we saw, our fence was leaning, significantly, to one side. How could this have happened? We had a SYSTEM! I even used a spacer! Never the less, the fence had to come down. We could not leave it up so crooked, what would the neighbors say?
Not to worry, we had a new plan. We placed a string across the top of where we wanted the fence to go, this ALWAYS works on TLC, right? Again we use our patented plan of me placing and spacing and Tom using the drill. Keep in mind we have now been at this project for several hours and we have even lost the support of our remaining two daughters. Apparently cleaning the house is TONS of fun. So the fence goes up for the second time. We carefully follow our string as a guide, certain that we have mastered this trade. Heck, Tom could open a fence building business, we are that good. The last piece is in place, we are tired, dirty and it has been about 900 degrees today(OK really only 90, but it sure felt a lot hotter, and really who can trust the weather man?) We step back and our perfectly straight fence is...still leaning. WHAT!? So much for the fencing business. Luckily the neighbors on that side aren't home much, cause the fence is staying the way it is, leaning and all. We're planting something tall on our side. Happy Labor Day!
I think now is the time to mention that our daughters were SO on board this project. All three of them were ready to jump in and "help". That lasted about 5 minutes.
Back to the fence...so we get the original fence down, new posts set and I am feeling pretty darn good. We have been working on this project together for a couple of hours and so far we haven't fought over my inability to use a drill, or the fact that the six hammers we own have all gone on a mysterious vacation to the land of the lost. The only incident has been when our 8 year old, Emma, realized she hates manual labor and would rather clean the entire house than work in the yard. So we move on to phase two, attaching the fence boards(picket's perhaps?) to the frame.(I am fully aware of the fact that there are correct terms for all of theses things, my lack of knowledge will become abundantly clear here in a minute...) Tom and I have come up with a brilliant plan, I will place the boards, using a spacer between each one and he will follow along and drill them into place. We couldn't believe how fast this went, we worked together like a finely tuned machine. The fence was finished in record time...but wait, turns out putting up a fence is one thing, putting up a STRAIGHT fence is a totally different thing.
Tom and I stepped back to inspect our handy work, and couldn't believe what we saw, our fence was leaning, significantly, to one side. How could this have happened? We had a SYSTEM! I even used a spacer! Never the less, the fence had to come down. We could not leave it up so crooked, what would the neighbors say?
Not to worry, we had a new plan. We placed a string across the top of where we wanted the fence to go, this ALWAYS works on TLC, right? Again we use our patented plan of me placing and spacing and Tom using the drill. Keep in mind we have now been at this project for several hours and we have even lost the support of our remaining two daughters. Apparently cleaning the house is TONS of fun. So the fence goes up for the second time. We carefully follow our string as a guide, certain that we have mastered this trade. Heck, Tom could open a fence building business, we are that good. The last piece is in place, we are tired, dirty and it has been about 900 degrees today(OK really only 90, but it sure felt a lot hotter, and really who can trust the weather man?) We step back and our perfectly straight fence is...still leaning. WHAT!? So much for the fencing business. Luckily the neighbors on that side aren't home much, cause the fence is staying the way it is, leaning and all. We're planting something tall on our side. Happy Labor Day!
Here I go...
I rock! I totally figured out how to set this up! Ok, my 9 year old daughter had to talk me through it, but still, it is done! Quite frankly I don't know what I am going to do with this new found outlet, I can barely respond to my email, I am the least computer savvy person ever. So if you are reading this by some strange twist of fate, there are a couple of things I can guarantee: 1. there will not be any sort of cute abbreviations on my blog. (LOL is the only one I even know about)
2. yes my daughters will be the main topic of writing for me seeing as they are pretty much my life.
3. there is a good chance I will end up making a complete fool of myself
There, that's it, short and sweet and to the point. Chloe, my nine year old, insists this will be fun, I guess we will see...
2. yes my daughters will be the main topic of writing for me seeing as they are pretty much my life.
3. there is a good chance I will end up making a complete fool of myself
There, that's it, short and sweet and to the point. Chloe, my nine year old, insists this will be fun, I guess we will see...
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