The Great Balancing Act

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Isn't she the cutest thing?  All cozy in her footy pajama's waiting to read her bed time book.  That's it! I might have to make her wear footy pajama's when she's 20.

 But then . . . the phone rang.  I needed to answer a quick question about skiing this winter -- I had to look some information up on the computer to answer it properly.  I guess I shouldn't blame her (but oh I do, how I do) after all, how is a girl to resist the temptation to let it all hang out while her mom is both on the phone and the computer.  She body slammed her sister.  She hit the cat with A Pika's Tail. (A lovely little story about mountain wildlife by Sally Plumb put out by the Grand Teton Association.)  She took only one bite of the snack I had given her, because you know she was starving to death.  Thus, we did not read A Pika's Tail, and we went to bed without finishing our snack.  She then got back out of her bed off and on for the next hour and a half demanding her bread roll -- because you know she's starving to death.

 

 

Don't let this one fool you -- with her calm, quiet book reading; organized little pile of books; and  line up of owl lovies. She somehow managed to "accidently" bounce her sister's head off the floor (twice) while I was trying to confirm ski classes, and exactly which days I reserved hotel rooms for skiing.  I made these reservations back in May, there was commotion, it was all a bit confusing. . .

In hindsight, this is the picture that showed their true nature.

 

There is not enough chocolate in the WORLD to fix this.  Footy pajama at 20?  Ha!  Thing 1 and Thing 2 will be off on their merry way by then, and I will be able to talk on the phone, and use the computer without ciaos erupting in my home.  Then, of course, I'm going to dream of footy pajamas. . . .

This morning, when Holly woke up grumpy due to lack of sleep, and her all around sunny disposition, she of course, wanted that blankity, blank bread roll for breakfast.

 

 

 

Girl Scout Mom and Me Tea

Holly joined Katie and I for the first time this year for the Girl Scout mom and me Tea.  In spite of the fact that it seems none of us could keep our eyes open, we had a really fun time!  Holly was VERY proud of her big girl status, and Katie drank an ocean of Lemon Zinger Tea.

I Have The Power!

 

Holly has discovered the power of the TV remote.  She won’t put it down.  I think she’d take it to bed and stash is under her pillow if I’d let her.  Katie is absolutely loving it -- humm not so much.

Overheard at the Dinning Room Table . . .

"Katie is looking at me!"

"No, I'm not."

And to think, I choose NOT to have wine with dinner tonight.   Silly me.  Not to worry, the girls thought they'd help me out by giving me plenty of wine to make sure wasn't missing out.

Disclaimer

An eight year-old and a three year-old have been wrapping my Christmas presents today.  Katie has a couple of days off school for parent-teacher conferences and we did some Christmas shopping yesterday.  Christmas you say?!  Don’t talk to me about Christmas, but you must remember that my mailing deadlines are fast approaching.  Katie’s been on me ever since we went shopping to wrap the presents – as I mentioned below, the evil, evil nose bugs have taken me on.  I handed the children the supplies, labeled the gifts, and told them to have at it.  The rules . . . don't fight, do your best, lable accurately, and stop talking to mom.  (Girl Led, Learn By Doing, and Cooperative Learning -- all the goals of the new Girl Scout Leadership Experience rolled into one.)  The good news is that Katie has better handwriting than I do and the gift tags are really pretty.  The bad news is; well, she wraps like an eight-year-old.  Apparently, this is the activity of the week because other children are now in my house, they’ve abandoned their craft project and the PlayStation in favor of wrapping presents.  I thought the ten-year-old would up the wrapping game, but not so much.  They have wisely put Holly in charge of choosing the bows and tags.  So, when you receive a package from me that looks like a troop of color-blind monkeys wrapped the gifts, embrace the love of little fingers, the fact that an eight and ten year-old choose wrapping as a raining day activities over the PlayStation that they seldom get to play, and hay I did several hours less work this holiday season.  (When I set them free with the project, I mean it.)  All the better to huddle freezing under a down blanket and sneeze with.  See . . . aren’t you glad I didn’t touch what’s coming into your house with my virus bomb?

Overheard in the Shower

“Holly if you don’t stop doing that with the water, I’m going to tell Momma!”

“He-He, Ha-Ha, He-He, Cackle-Cackle.”

“No, I’m going to tell Daddy!”

“N o-o-o-o-o-o-o!  Ahhhhhhhhh!”

Mom Photographer

 

It has long been my tradition to have the girls’ sit for an annual portrait session.  However, that has proved to be a much more complicated thing for me to do in Germany.  Photo studios like The Picture People and JC Penney’s do not exist here.  The only professional photographers that are available are the types who take uber expensive wedding and senior picture photos – not exactly what I want to do every year.  I am solving this by taking some photos of the girls myself.  Last year, most all of you received my first efforts in the form of Christmas Cards.  This year I took the girls to Ladenburg and took advantage of the city’s picturesque architecture.  Here is a sneak peek of this year’s Christmas Cards.

 

And The Best Gift is . . .

The best gift is of course the shipping box that Katie's globe came in.  Bubble wrap and empty wrapping paper tubes tie for second.

Sleepy

     Katie and Holly got up this morning, but are still sleepy and cuddling in Katie's blanket.  (Notice they traded luvies.) Now, I'm wondering why they get up earlier on the weekend than I have to wake them up kicking and screaming on the week day, and then lay and doze now that I've had to get up.  News flash girls -- if you're tired, stay in your bed and sleep.

     We are hoping to take a trip down to Mannheim's Christmas Market today.  It is supposed to be one of the largest in Germany.  So, look for pictures from that later today.

The Battle Continues

     Holly thought she had The Chair in the bag this morning -- note her clever horizontal placement accompanied by a diagonal slant to further block Chair access.  However, she made a fatal flaw -- she left room behind her.  Katie just went up over the arm and into the sweet spot.  (We've had chilly mornings and mid-80 afternoons.  Both girls are vegging while waiting for the morning walk to school.)  (The boxes you see are large pictures, mirrors, and such that need hung on the walls -- someday.)

     We finally made it to IKEA yesterday afternoon to pick up Katie's loft bed, desk, and book shelf.  Of course, a primary reason why "things cost lest at IKEA" is because you haul and assemble them yourself.  The hauling actually went pretty smoothly, but the assembling got us this time.  We got about an hour and half into assembly, and about 70% complete when we began to assemble the bed rails around the loft.  Discovered that on STEP 1 we put the tall legs on the sides of the beds on backwards -- the sides with 4 holes has to face in and the side with 3 out, on each end we have a 4 and a 3 facing in.  This was not clear to us in the instructions until we got to the step where you attach the upper, side rails.  We have to take the WHOLE thing apart and start over.  As it was already past 8:30, and well past Katie's bed time we left it partially assembled and put Katie's mattress back on the floor.  It's a two person job, so we'll have to take the thing apart and START OVER tonight.  My poor Katie deserves an award for still not having any of her stuff assessable!  She was so happy and playing with Holly last night too so we could get it done -- it was truly a stellar sibling moment.  (And proof that Holly didn't get her engineering ability from either of us.)