I remember a time when I was about 7 or 8 or so. Poppy came and picked me up from my house and took me to his. I don't remember why it was just him and I in the car. I know I was going to spend the weekend up at Nanny and Poppy's. Or something like that. I really don't remember anything about why this car ride was taking place. But I remember the car ride. I have always loved to talk. And that car ride, with Poppy's undivided attention - I was in hog heaven! I talked his ear off, the entire 1 hour car ride. I talked about school, about friends, who knows what other deep thoughts I had as an 8 year old. And he just listened. I don't think I let him get a word in edgewise. I heard him talking to Nanny that night. "Oh boy - that girl can talk and talk." But he wasn't complaining. I really felt like he enjoyed listening to me as much I enjoyed talking. 

Today would have been Poppy's 83rd birthday. My heart is so heavy. I miss him so much lately. My heart breaks for my Nanny. She's doing amazingly well, and she shocks me with how independent she can be. She showed me all that she did by herself - moving furniture, painting basement stairs, hanging curtains. And she's surrounded by her 3 daughters who take great care of her. But still. I can't imagine the emptiness that must come when someone who has been by your side for 55 years is no longer there.

Today for Poppy's birthday we are having clams for dinner. And listening to some patriotic music. Maybe I'll put on some Rush Limbaugh while I'm at it. 

Things That Weren't a Luxury Until I Had Kids....

So this is a little list that has been growing in my head for a while.

Things That Were NOT a Luxury Until I Had Kids....

1 - An uninterrupted shower.
2 - Eating dinner without someone on my lap.
3 - Sleeping past 7:00am
4 - Having sick days.
5 - Any time I am alone with my husband
6 - Silence
7 - A clean house
8 - Grocery shopping by myself
9 - Privacy in the bathroom
10 - Heck, privacy anywhere!

I'm sure there's plenty more. What are yours?

magic and salt.

So Abigail chokes at almost every meal. She usually coughs a bit and is fine. Tonight she was trying to cough, but turning red. She was really choking. Aaron grabbed her and went all baby Heimlich on her. It took a few seconds that felt like hours, but she got it out eventually. I told Aaron I was seriously scared she was going to die. Cue Olivia.

"MOMMY! Don't say that! Abigail can't DIE. Jesus made her! Jesus made her magical. So she can't die. He made her out of magic and salt."

Cue hysterical laughter. From magic and salt we have come, to magic and salt we will return.

Nothing really to say...

But it's been a while. Like almost a week. How are you all getting along without reports of my antics?

Life is no less crazy than usual. Today I was talking to my mom and she asked what we were doing since Aaron had the day off. I told her about this deal going on at Chic-Fil-A, and that our big plans for today were to take advantage of it. And we laughed. But seriously they had a promotion today that whatever you bought, would print on a blue receipt. You can bring the blue receipt back in anytime between now and Feb something, and get everything on your receipt (third time I typed receipt and I spelled it wrong every single time, thank you spell check) again but FOR FREE! So basically, we got $17.00 worth of food, and next time we go in we will get $17 worth of free food. I mean, seriously, THATS EXCITING! .... and that's the extent of the excitement around here.

Olivia was cute with Abigail at Chic-Fil-A. Abigail had climbed up into the tube things, and there were a bunch of kids running around. I heard Olivia yelling at the other kids, "That's my sister Abigail! No body push her!" And in my head I heard her say, "because that's my job!"... but she didn't really say that. But sometimes she acts like it. Their relationship is so fun to watch develop. I love watching Olivia be the big sister. I also love that Olivia really doesn't remember life without Abigail. They love to snuggle in bed together while Aaron or I tell them a bedtime story. They fight over toys. Abigail copies EVERYTHING Olivia does. Olivia fell down the other day. Abigail stopped what she was doing, and fell to the ground. Just to copy Olivia. I pointed it out to Olivia and she thinks it's fabulous. She kept doing different things so Abigail would copy her. I know it's only a matter of time before we're at the stage where Olivia will be mortally offended that Abigail is copying her and I'll constantly be hearing, "SHE'S COPYING ME!".... so for now I'm soaking up the cuteness.

I have been feeling kind of blah. I think I'm getting sick. I have a scratchy throat. And I just lost steam today. My to-do list this morning was miles long, and I got about 1/4 of it done. It's so hard to not be lazy. Seriously. If I could I think I would lay around all day every day. Thinking of my grandmother motivates me. Seriously, she is like 80 years old and she never stops. I called her the other day when she was snowed in. You would think, you are snowed in at 80 years old, you would be laying around on the couch, reading a book, watching tv or something. Not Nanny. No way. By 10:00 she had scrubbed her bathtub, mopped her floors and was baking cookies. She irons PILLOWCASES and UNDERWEAR. I want to be just like her. Like that whole "shoot for the moon, because even if you miss you'll land among the stars" mentality. If I shoot for being like Nanny... I'll never reach it (because honestly, I have ironed Aaron's SHIRTS like 5 times in the last 5 years, I just don't see myself ironing underwear any time soon) but maybe I'll be a little better. Like I'll start making my bed, or not leaving dishes in the sink overnight. And to all of you who read this to Nanny - edit this post for me, okay? Don't let her know I don't make my bed. And I think she might have a stroke if you let her know I left dishes in the sink. But seriously, I think about it all the time. I just want to be more like her. She is as far from lazy as you can get. How did I end up this way???

So tomorrow I'll evoke my inner Nanny and finish my to-do list. But tonight I'll hop into my unmade bed and leave the dishes in the sink.

poison pizza

So I'm tired. Really tired. And I'm laying in bed. The kids are watching a show downstairs. Eating raisins. I hear, "Here little birdy! Here birdy!" Over and over again. I thought to myself, "How cute, Olivia is pretending Abigail is a little bird. And feeding her. That's cute." I finally get out of bed... I was honestly probably only laying there for maybe 10 minutes. I come downstairs and raisins are EVERYWHERE! Apparently Abigail wasn't a very hungry birdy. We pick up the entire box of raisins and put them back in the container because I'm that kind of mom.

Then I have a basket of freshly clean, folded laundry. While I  turn my back Abigail empties the entire contents of the basket. We pick it all up, and put it away.

While I'm putting away clothes in Abigail's dresser, Abigail is emptying the clothes from Olivia's.

She refuses to sit in her highchair. She climbs out and stands on her tray. To give me heart palpitations, I'm sure of it. Aaron even tied her into it with the tie right off his neck. And she climbed out, to stand on her tray.

Abigail's vocabulary consists of grunts and pointing, mama, dada, uh-oh, eeese (please), a dog-like pant, and now an evil laughter. She got that from Olivia tonight when Olivia said in her mean witch voice, "I'm making a magical pizza. It will make you go to sleep... FOREVER!! Mwuahahhaha!" She really has her evil laugh down. And then Abigail copied it. Perfectly. It was straight from a cartoon. The little villain and her mute little sidekick who doesn't really know what's going on but laughs evilly anyway.

Should I be worried my 2 year old is pretending to poison me with pizza? She certainly knows my weakness.

Sorry this post is pretty random. This day was pretty random. Sometimes I just like to remember these random moments.

BFF's

Abigail, stay my little baby forever. Never get any bigger.
No! Mommy, Abigail has to grow up and get bigger.
Why? Why can't she stay little forever?
BECAUSE SHE HAS TO GET BIGGER SO SHE CAN BE MY BEST FRIEND!!!

...In that case I guess I can let her get a little bigger.

Tangled

Olivia and I had some one-on-one time yesterday. We went to see Tangled. It was super fun. I loved the movie. Even though there were a lot of intense parts, during which Olivia would scream, "MOMMY TURN THIS OFF!" And I'd try to distract her with candy or something. When it was over I asked her what her favorite parts were. She said she had two favorite parts. A bad part and a good part. Her favorite good part was when "they fell in true love and kissed". And her favorite bad part was when they running away as fast as they could. Then we stopped by a baby shower. And I hoped she'd fall asleep for a nap on the way home. She came awfully close, but managed to keep herself awake long enough to be absolutely miserable for the rest of the day. Which is why she went to bed at 6:30.