dinner-time battle of wills

I thought I'd made a decent dinner tonight: rice, asparagus (steamed and tossed with the same ingredients I usually make spinach with), and schnitzel. Both kids ate the asparagus without any argument (huge surprise there!). Big Sis finished her dinner and asked to be excused. Meanwhile, L'il Sis had eaten almost everything but hadn't touched her "chicken" (it's what she called it). I can't even adequately describe her dramatics in trying to avoid taking a bite. She sighed. She held her head in her hands, covering her eyes. It went on and on. Finally, I took her fork and fed her a bite. She chewed and swallowed, then she said, "Mm-m, that's good!"

Seriously, I don't get paid enough for this job. And it's causing gray hairs and wrinkles.

*update: I use pork tenderloin for the schnitzel. But I do use veal (and sometimes chicken, but it's not as good) for veal piccata over linguine. That's one of Big Sis' favorite meals.

dancing kids

This is another one that only family will probably be interested in. A couple of months ago, I caught the girls on our Flip. While Big Sis' dancing was pretty tame, L'il Sis did quite a bit of air guitar and a little head-banging for good measure. Is it any wonder that we worry that a mosh pit might feature in her future?

Christmas 2008

These won't be of interest to anyone but family. One is L'il Sis opening a gift. By the time I got the Flip out to record her, she was getting tired and her fun meter was just about pegged. The other is Big Sis. She's funnier, especially when she effusively thanks Grandma.

oh, really...

Not long ago, I was giving out to L'il Sis over something and asked her in frustration, "Why would you do this?!" With big innocent eyes, she calmly responded, "Because I didn't know any better."

Hmm, I don't think I'm buying it.

New look

As you can see, I've been playing around with the look of the blog. Let me know what you think!

Well, that's a bit awkward...

L'il Sis has always been a bit more, um, aware of bodies. I can still remember the time when she was 2 and Stretch was completely traumatized by her. When he'd had to take Big Sis into a public restroom, he'd simply taken her into a stall, positioned her facing the door and instructed her to not move or turn around until he'd taken care of business. It wasn't a problem. But when he tried the same technique with L'il Sis... well, he spent the time trying to answer Nature's call while wrestling with L'il Sis (trying to keep her turned toward the stall door and away from him) while she yelled, "I wanna see naked!" I'm pretty sure that was the last time he attempted to take her into a restroom.

Then there was the question she asked me in a quiet library in front of some Marines (male, of course).

Well, she's managed to traumatize her father again. The other night, Stretch was getting her ready for bed when she started blitzing him with questions. The one that sucker-punched him was "Daddy, am I gonna bleed when I'm older?"

Fortunately, she moved on to something else quickly before he had to answer.

Update: I can't believe I forgot to include this little nugget. Big Sis loves to watch "The Saddle Club" and a recent episode showed a mare giving birth to a foal in all its gory details. Later, the girls were playing and pretending to be dogs. (This is a favorite game, maybe because we don't have pets.) While Big Sis was a very hyper dog, L'il Sis kept laying on the couch, giving birth to puppies. She would say, "Pretend another puppy is coming out my booty." I wasn't sure what to be most disturbed by as I had several choices. Stretch, of course, just wanted her to stop.

Hey, Dual-bag!

This is too funny!

race day

Yesterday Big Sis participated in a 1.2 mile run. We were so impressed with how quickly she ran the mile. You can't tell from this picture, but she started with a lot more kids from her school. This was at the finish line where she'd pulled ahead of most of the kids she started with.

this and that

Why can't my 4-1/2 year old leave the Christmas tree alone?! I don't remember having this problem in years past. Why now? She's 4-1/2, for crying out loud!

Remember this tree? It's down, again, for probably the 3rd or 4th time since we moved in last summer. Of course, Stretch is out of town for the week.

Oh, and to really top things off, I just found out yet another friend has moved to the base I left last summer. We were supposed to be there for 3 years. Instead, we were there less than 18 months. Well, the girls and I were there. Stretch might have been there 3 months altogether. Not that I was counting. So, anyway. I've got a list of friends that are now there (and I'm not!) while I'm here, still not having made any real friends. The Marine Corps has a sick sense of humor.