We spent the majority of the weekend at Grammy and Grampy’s house. I think my parents must still be recovering from the wildness that is my two children. Mike and Lois left early Saturday morning for Pinehurst and his mother’s memorial mass. I headed to Southside (yes, folks - you CAN cross the river in Richmond and live to tell the tale) with the stinky dog, Lily and Arden and 4 bags full of stuff.

We spent Saturday morning buying Play-Doh at Target for Lily and went home to read some books and make a mess on the floor with the stuff. Arden just wanted to eat the Play-Doh but she was eventually distracted by the box full of beads and necklaces my mom has. That was the best $.50 she ever spent and I highly recommend it as a toy all parents should have. She got the box at a garage sale and it’s full of costume jewelry. The girls drape themselves in it and generally have a blast playing with it. The only time I had to intervene is when Lily tried to use one necklace as “reins” for Arden - she looked like she was about to attempt riding her little sister.

We put Arden down for a much-needed nap after lunch and Mom and I headed out with Lily to see Doogle. There were a total of 5 people in the theatre. This theatre has a few “love seats” so Lily and I curled up in one while she attacked Grammy’s popcorn. I think it was more hers than Grammy’s, but mom has learned and now orders larger sizes than she normally would. Doogle was fine for a kid’s movie. The rabbit kind of reminded me of Sara’s hubbie, Tim . . . or what Tim would have been like in college. Seeing William H. Macy as a snail freaked me out a little bit.

We headed back home and then attempted dinner out at Applebee’s. My poor dad - those places are so loud, my kids are so loud, and it’s always one accident after another. Dad was trying to help Lily color something when he knocked over his soda. It went everywhere, including on Lily, who immediately started whimpering. We got that mess cleaned up in time for Arden to start throwing her food around and generally making a lot of angry noises (apparently she was done and ready to go). The kitchen messed up my order so it took forever to get it, and this Applebee’s is now on my list of restaurants that pretend to have a non-smoking section but really don’t.

Warning . . . rant coming . . . I realize that I am digressing, but please, explain to me how the bar, which is in the middle of the restaurant, can be surrounded by “non-smoking” tables. The bar is literally 2-3 feet away from these tables, so while we are in non-smoking, the people at the bar are not. Jennifer and I had a bitch session at the waiter of Ruby Tuesday’s on Broad Street a few weeks ago. Same set up there. The waiter made the mistake of telling Jennifer and I that the waitstaff in the smoking section (i.e., the original section near the bar) didn’t get any business at lunch because no one wanted to sit in the smoking section. So instead of just making the restaurant non-smoking, they made the tables near the bar “non-smoking” in the hopes they’d fake us all out into not noticing there’s no wall or separation between the bar and the tables. If this public smoking ban passes in Virginia it will be a freakin’ miracle but I will be very, very happy. Why, oh why, did I end up in the smoking capital of the universe?!?! . . . end rant.

After dinner, we headed home for ice cream and baths. Lily and Arden were nice and sticky by the time they made it into the bath. Lily insisted on sleeping in the Aerobed (instead of with me), so we blew it up and made a nice little nest for her. Arden went right to sleep in her crib, exhausted from her day. Lily did not. She called me up there a number of times because she wanted to know when I was coming to bed. The wind was really blowing hard and making all sorts of strange noises, which didn’t help. Eventually I got her to fall asleep. By the time I fell asleep, it was quarter to twelve. At midnight, Lily woke up again and started talking to me about how she needed me. She ended up crawling into bed with me, draping herself and her 16 stuffed animals over my body, and breathing heavily in my face all night. While it was cute, and kind of nice to be loved on like that, I didn’t get much sleep. At 6 AM she was awake and wanting to go play with her grandparents. I managed to contain her until quarter to 7, then sicked her on my parents. Arden stayed in her room until about 7.30.

After breakfast we decided to go look around the Southside at potential neighborhoods for the next house we buy. The girls were patient and we took them to play at Chesterfield Mall where Grampy taught Arden how to use her feet to get up the play bridge they have there. Unfortunately once she learned how to do it, she didn’t want to stop doing it, and a huge temper tantrum was his reward when he tried to pick her up to leave. Arden also dropped what could possibly be the stinkiest poop ever into her diaper and I, being the fabulous mother than I am, didn’t have any diapers with me. She kept crawling into this tunnel and I swear that there were literally green vapors emanating from it. We made a pit stop at Target to pick up diapers and wipes, headed to Arby’s, wasted $17 on lunch that the girls wouldn’t eat, and headed back for naptime.

I decided that Lily and I both needed a nap, so I tried to lie down with her. After about 15 minutes of telling her to be quiet/stop poking my eyes/pulling my hair/rolling around on me, she announced, “Mommy, I need space. Please go away.” Alrighty then. I flounced out of the room and crashed on the couch for a blissful hour before Mike arrived and rescued my parents (and me). He bought me some candles from my favorite shop in Southern Pines, Gap Creek. And he got to spend some time with his dad and sister - which is always a good thing. Hopefully mom’s back isn’t re-broken from carrying Arden all over and dad’s hearing is intact after Arden and Lily screeched at each other all weekend.

1. Movies, especially “Finding Nemo”, “Chicken Little” and “Monsters, Inc.” Curious George - not so much. This weekend we’ll be going to see “Doogle” and that might be right up there.

2. Eating out, especially Max and Erma’s (chocolate chip cookies). Other favorites include McDonald’s (of course) and IHOP (she goes nuts for the pancakes and sausage).

3. Wrestle-Fest - same as Arden. She likes to perch herself on one of us and leap into the air, using our bodies as a springboard.

4. The color red. Anything that is red is good with her. She loves her red rainboats, her red hair clips, her red dress, and her red crayons and markers.

5. Anything with markers and crayons. She is an art fiend. She loves the Hello Kitty purse and stamp set Aunt Jenn got her because she can draw on the purse.

6. Reading - especially Mercer Mayer’s “Just Go To Bed”, “Horns to Toes”, “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” and “Where The Wild Things Are”. She never misses a book before bedtime.

7. Morning snuggling. Every morning Lily pads into our room around 6.45 - 7, announces her presence, places her Care Bears and pink blanket in our bed, clambors up, and tells us, “I want to watch some TEE-vee!” She then drapes herself across us, gives us lots of hugs and kisses, and occasionally strokes our hair. It is definitely the time of day when she is most loving and sweet.

8. The Wiggles and Higglytown Heroes. “Here in Higglytown . . .things all jump around . . . just like the Higglytown heroes . . .the heroes . . .” Ugh. I need not say anything else. “Fruit salad . . . yummy yummy.” I will be singing these songs for an eternity.

9. Doing everything herself, including brushing her own teeth (“With my shark toothpaste, Mommy!”), dressing and undressing, and especially picking out her own underwear.

10. Care Bear stuffed animals, especially “red” bear, who is actually pink. Shhhhh - don’t tell her. Well, he does have a red heart on his belly, but he is most definitely pink.

I was getting so much crap from Mike about the old blog address being http://www.lilydelbueno.blogspot.com that I finally let the guilt force me to check into moving it to delbueno.net. I tried to do it myself, thinking that I am always preaching the gospel of “Thou Shalt Learn By Doing”. However, it was really complicated and I totally messed up my blog to the point that I couldn’t post to it. Phil heard my cussing and sighing and helped me out. So enjoy. New blog template and set up to come. It’s time.

I decided I’d put together a Top 10 List for Lily and Arden - merely for posterity’s sake. They are both into such weird things right now I figured it would give us all a laugh later in life. I need a laugh tonight. I was just hailed by Lily, at the top of her lungs, to come upstairs. She was screaming my name like someone was pulling her fingernails out, one by one. Turns out that her Care Bear’s hood had come down and she needed me to put it back on. I was very stern. As I fixed the hood I instructed her NOT to yell for me again, that it was 8 pm, I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and there was no need to scream for something like a wardrobe malfunction.

Arden’s 10 Favorites - February 2006

1. Screeching whenever someone comes near her toys, mouth wide open, veins bulging, and hands curled into fists

2. Changing into “Tidal Wave Tess” at bath time, in which she flattens her hands and spreads her fingers, then smacks them on top of the water as hard as possible, creating large and expansive tub tidal waves that splash all over us. This is usually followed by a scream from Lily and a variation of the phrase, “Arden, you big turkey - STOP SPLASHING ME!”

3. Her froggy cuddle cloth. She is attached to something, finally - even if it isn’t me. Every night she pulls it out of her crib during Wrestle Fest and sucks her thumb while rubbing it on her face. She also drapes it over her head and attempts to walk while blind.

4. Wrestle Fest. This evening ritual between 7 and 7.15 involves Arden throwing herself complete with cuddle cloth at Mike and I, who are usually lying on the floor. A lot of screeching and grunting accompanies this.

5. Station Square. This is the play area at Lily’s preschool. Arden is obsessed with it and if I put her down, I’d better be prepared to listen to her scream when I make her leave. She’d stay there all day if I’d let her.

6. Elmo Rock n’ Roll Gym. A Christmas gift from Gramp, Arden presses all the noisy, loud obnoxious buttons and totally rocks out to the music. She even created her own dance move that Mike and I have named “The Blender”. This dance involves rotating as fast as possible while sitting on knees and moving arms about in a blenderish way. If only I had some rum for that blender . . .

7. Food. When Arden is hungry, there is nothing like food. She double-fists it into her mouth and sometimes she can’t get enough of it. I like to call her “Mommy’s little compulsive over-eater”. Sometimes her belly is so full of whatever (usually mandarin oranges) that it looks like she swallowed a bowling ball. She definitely takes after the Kimler side of the family.

8. Daddy. Arden is still daddy’s girl. She loves me, but mostly when Daddy isn’t around. She will put her head on his shoulder and let him hold her endlessly. When I try to do that, she shoves me away, bats at my face, attempts to put her finger up my nose, or tries to rip out my earrings.
9. Wascloths. Nothing makes Arden quite so happy as sucking on a big, wet washcloth while taking a bath. We just cross our fingers and hope Lily hasn’t peed in the tub when she does it.

10. Grampa. Arden’s second favorite person in the universe is Grampa. It’s possibly because he’s the only one she sort of looks like, and most likely spends her days looking at her father and me wondering where she came from. It could also be that he blows on her neck, swings her in his arms like a baby monkey, and lets her rip his glasses off his face.

Stay tuned for Lily’s favorites tomorrow. I have to go fix a Care Bear’s hood.

We had a busy weekend between going to the circus and Sophia’s baptism. It was a good weekend and really took my mind off work - a big bonus. Lily enjoyed the circus and I still can’t believe they were able to train a cat to do anything, especially acrobatics. I told Steve later that all the rest of the kitties in catland were booing and hissing and calling those circus cats a disgrace to felines everywhere. The dogs were pretty cute, too. And no one from PETA stopped us at the entrance to show us graphic pictures of tortured elephants, so all was good.

Arden did a ton of walking this weekend and each night has basically passed out from exhaustion. Once she warmed up at the Yeagers this afternoon, she walked non-stop. Sophia had a lot of bouncing around and different people mauling her (me included) but I know the relatives and friends all enjoyed her even if she was just wishing we would all SHUT UP and let her get some sleep! As can be expected there was enough food to feed 100 people. It was a good time and I’m doing okay with the guilt about not doing anything for Arden - at least for the moment. My mom was nearly passing out in ecstasy at attending an honest-to-god grade A Catholic Baptism. At least she can live vicariously through Jennifer and Troy.

We had dinner with the Vozars tonight - Lily said she couldn’t wait to go “to see my cousins - Matt and Hayden!” They had a lot of fun playing and Christine had plenty of time to hug and squeeze Arden. I think I can safely say that she is the only person not happy that Arden is walking. She wants Arden to be her little buddy forever. Sorry, Christine! It’s happening . . .

Lily was a total nutball today. Grammy was professing her undying love for Lily as we walked out of Jennifer’s house. “Lily, did you hear me? I said I love you . . . ” Lily turned around and waved and said, “I know you do, Grammy.” Ah, to be that secure in love . . .

It’s back to work tomorrow, and there’s plenty of it to do, so I’m going to spend some time this week not being billable and figuring out what I need to do to feel okay again about some of my decisions. I’ve been working on the business plan as well which has been good for me. Bring on the week . . . I’m not ready but I’m willing.