We actually went out tonight with the Pilcs - who possibly needed a night out more than we did. Or definitely needed it. We had dinner at a swanky restaurant (not a high chair in sight!), went to a photography show at a gallery, and lingered over food, the majority of which we could not pronounce.

Mom and dad stayed with the girls and had a great time with them. Both girls were in rare form tonight. Arden, after 5 days straight of being the center of the universe was completely fired up, screeching and flapping and waving at anyone who would catch her eye, smiling and giggling, and into everything. Lily convinced my mom to let her take a bath in “mommy’s big bathtub” when they got home from Ukrops. Apparently mom didn’t wash her hair like I do - she informed her that “no, don’t do it that way - mommy does it like this and does a really good job.” She proceeded to demonstrate on Grammy’s head how to wash hair. Mom was using her nails to scrub the shampoo in - I guess I just use my fingertips. Picky, picky! She also told mom, while sitting on the toilet, that “actually, I’m big enough to get on the potty without my stool, but I’m still too little for my feet to touch.” Actually??? Where does this stuff come from? They all had a great time.

Lily is doing exceptionally well at preschool and is happier than I’ve ever seen her. I keep reiterating this fact, but it’s so reassuring to me. She loves her teachers, she loves the other kids, she’s always excited about the things they are doing at school, and she appears to be learning a lot (including lots of new vocabulary words, most good - some not so hot).

Lily’s report card from today:

“Lily’s favorite word was “no!” but she was so cute it was hard to get mad. She has also decided that in the near future, she will never eat salad and she wants to go to the moon.” I guess she inherited her mother’s distaste for iceberg lettuce. They are having “vegetable” week at school and reading books called things like “The Enormous Carrot” and having veggie tasting parties. Today they made a salad - hence the anti-lettuce stance.

An excerpt from a conversation with Lily yesterday:

Mommy: “What did you guys do at school today? Ms. Hood said you learned about cows!”
Lily: “No, mommy - we MILKED the cow.”
Mommy: “You did? How cool! Did you like it?”
Lily: “mmmm-HMMMM! And guess what mommy! Did you know that um…um…that um…milk comes from the cow’s butt?”
Mommy: “I don’t think so, Lily.”
Lily: “Yes, IT DOES, MOMMY!!!”
Mommy: “I think it comes from the udder. Is that what you mean?”
Lily: “mmmm-HMMMM! Da udder. And the milk comes out of the cow’s butt.”

end excerpt.

It finally happened. Lily’s level of comfort with her teachers has enabled her to now have full-blown temper tantrums. Yesterday she decided not to use her “listening ears”, so Ms. Allen told her to listen up and come outside with the rest of her group. She decided to stiffen her entire body, hold her hands out in front of her (she looks like a zombie or frankenstein when she does this), shake and scream at the top of her lungs. Ms. Allen wrote me a note at the bottom of her daily sheet about Lily having a fit . . . she handled it like a champ, however, and handed Lily a tissue, told her to get it together, and when she stopped crying to join the rest of her class outside. Lately her tantrums don’t last very long, especially when ignored, and she was back to her normal, cheerful, listening-ears-on self in a few minutes.

I felt bad for Ms. Allen, however - she just got married and returned from her honeymoon. Her first day back and it was truly back to reality. Nothing removes all the relaxation of vacations like a screaming 3 year old. I’m sure she wasn’t the only child to have a tantrum yesterday . . .

I’m trying to convince Mike to let me buy a digital camera so I can be better about posting pictures on the blog. I always forget when I send them away to be developed - and then I have to remember to bring them to work, scan them, and upload them. I may have been converted to the digital age - we’ll wait and see. Maybe I’ll ask him that for a joint Christmas present.

We’re going out with the Pilc’s on Friday - can’t wait - we could use some time with adults, especially after this week. I think we’re going to a gallery opening with them and dinner afterward.

I spent the night at my parent’s house with just Arden last night. It was heavenly in that I got to spend some time with just Arden. Usually Lily blockades me from Arden any time I try to get near her, but ha! She was gone. Mike took her home last night and will take her to her “school” today. Arden’s daycare provider is on vacation this week and we had forgotten that minor detail until Friday when I picked her up, and Judi mentioned something about vacation. Ooops. Mom is helping out as is Vicki. Thankfully Mike and I both have light weeks in terms of meetings or out-of-town commitments.

We had a nice weekend and were able to spend lots of time with the kiddies. Mia, who has been visiting while her mommy and daddy are in New York, spent a lot of time roaming around the yard, chasing squirrels, and trying to goad Delilah into playing with her (Delilah, alas, was having none of it). Mia is a shar-pei, one of those cute, cuddly wrinkly dogs. Mike has decided that on shar-peis, the wrinkles should be renamed “Stinkles”. She’s quite odorous but we love her. Delilah isn’t much better. I took some pictures of both doggies playing the yard, but since we don’t have a digital camera, I can’t post them until we develop them the old-fashioned way.

So much for my hopes that Lily would enjoy gymnastics. After cutting a $60 check to preschool for their “gymnastics” program, and Lily going one time, she decided that she no longer was interested. It’s actually gym-bus - a mobile gym on wheels that has a bunch of stuff inside for the kids to maul. She threw a fit on Friday and refused to get on the bus. Her teacher is going to try again this Friday, and if she still refuses, we’ll get a refund of our money. It’s strange considering she has been going to gym bus for quite some time - they had it at Tuckaway, too. I think she was just busy playing with something when it was time for gym bus and decided she would not be interrupted.

Steve and Vicki have renamed us “Biff and Muffy”. They gave us relentless amounts of crap about the duo Volvos in the garage now. I know, it is pukeable - we live in the suburbs, we have matching Volvos, and two small children. Did I mention the flag that changes with the seasons? All we need now is a garage full of crap. Oh, wait, we’ve got that too. How the mighty fall.

I’m going to attempt to work - it’s difficult since I’m not in the office, and I can hear Arden cooing and screeching downstairs. I’d much rather head down there and play with her . . .

Apparently Lily inherited my fear of the camera, but it’s strange, because normally she is a total ham. Today was “school picture day” and she came completely unraveled and made one of her teachers hold her hand because she was scared of the camera and the photographer. I’m sure when I get the proofs back, she’ll be tear-streaked and beet red. Poor thing!

She’s really upset about the new car and keeps telling me to give it to someone and get the gray car. How do you explain selling and trading things? She becomes very attached to things, even weird things like cars - and she doesn’t like any sort of disruption to her normal schedule. The white car is freaking her out every night when I pick her up from school and we continue to have the same discussion over and over again about why I can’t have the gray car anymore. This too shall pass. When I show her the third seat, she might change her mind about the white car - it’s a pretty cool feature.

I had an insane day today trying to get the money for the Subaru, work with Kelly to get the title for the Volvo, and try to work and answer phone calls between all of this. I didn’t accomplish half of what I needed to today, but instead of working tonight, I’m going to watch “Lost”. At least I got to see Amanda for lunch today. I haven’t seen her in ages - she used to work with me at Witt Mares but went back to law school and is now working at a large firm, waiting to see if she passed the bar (which I’ve no doubt she did on her first try). It was great catching up and NOT having a networking or business meeting at lunch. I’d sort of forgotten what it was like to relax and have friendly conversation since I haven’t had lunch with Jennifer in months - and she’s usually the only non-work lunch person I see.

Speaking of, I saw a bunch of people in Carytown today going to a 9.30 yoga class, and it occurred to me that since I work full-time, I should stop denying myself the ability to work out or take classes. As soon as I get some time I’m going to check out the schedule and start taking a pilates or yoga class at least once a week during the day. I can always go back to the office and change. I realize I need some stress relief and god knows my body needs the workout.

So much has happened with the girls over the past few days, I don’t know where to begin and I will probably forget to mention something, but I’ll give it a shot.

Lily got in trouble last week for not “wearing her listening ears” and chatting through the entire naptime. She actually managed to keep some of the other kids (who still take naps - what an amazing thing) awake talking about everything under the sun. I believe this happened on “HAT DAY”. She has a watermelon hat and loves it so much she slept in it that night. I’m sure she was a bit warm, but whatever makes her happy. Arden got in trouble for screeching and playing with the other kids in her room during naptime as well - apparently neither of my girls are much for sleeping during the day. Judi now has to separate Arden from the others at nap time because she has such a jolly ole time clucking and screeching and tossing toys from her crib into the floor. She thinks she’s hilarious.

We had a nice weekend - Gramp was here with his friend Sybil, and the girls behaved for the most part and actually let Gramp hold them and read to them. Saturday afternoon we went to Matt’s 7th birthday party and both girls enjoyed the Moonbounce thing that Christine had rented. Arden liked it almost more than Lily - even when she did face plants. Matt and Hayden were good cousins and bounced her without getting too close to her or crushing her head. Lily laughed and bounced her brains out. On Sunday she asked me if we could go to Matt’s birthday party again - I had difficulty explaining the concept of birthdays coming once per year.

Work might be leveling off a little bit now that I’ve been working full time for nearly a month. I think I might be catching up and becoming more proactive. Either that, or something major has fallen through the cracks and I just can’t remember what it is. Mike worked last night and I finished painting the laundry room. Sara got me on a serious organizational kick and I can’t seem to get enough of cleaning and storing and buying all sorts of baskets and organizational trinkets. It is a phase, I’m sure, and will pass, but in the meantime the house looks good.

Don’t know if I reported this earlier but Lily is up to 24 pounds, which is still tiny but a huge breakthrough to us. We felt like she was hovering between 22-23 pounds for years, and getting to the 24 pound mark was very exciting for us. Arden weighs close to 17 pounds now and has a very healthy appetite to go along with her single tooth (no sight of tooth #2 yet).

Mike took me to Bookbinder’s on Friday night for our anniversary. It was delicious and wonderful, mostly because we didn’t have the kids with us. We had a long chat about everything and nothing, savored our food, and wound our way slowly back to home. The girls stayed with Aunt Loie and were very well-behaved. We stopped by Jennifer and Troy’s house to drop off some baby stuff. It was the first time Mike had seen Sophia - he couldn’t believe how tiny she was. You just have to see it to believe it - pictures don’t do her justice. She looks really good and is starting to fill out, as well as depriving her parents of sleep whenever possible. That’s my girl!