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.

I'm thankful...

...that the cooking is OVER! This is the first time I've cooked Thanksgiving in, oh, about 6 years. (So, the first time I've cooked it for L'il Sis.) I wasn't sure if I remembered what to do or when. I started baking yesterday. That lasted all afternoon: pumpkin bread, pecan pie, pecan tassies, beer bread. I thought I'd get around to making some Semper Fi cookies, too, but that will have to wait for another day.

I managed to get up, prep the bird and get it in the oven at a decent time. (Even more impressive was the fact that it was actually quite good, if I do say so myself.) We were shooting for eating at lunchtime. With a little help from Stretch, I managed to time it so everything was ready at the same time (relatively). The girls were a little confused as to why we were eating dinner if it was lunchtime.

We also pulled out the good china and flatware. Threw an actual tablecloth down on the table and used cloth napkins. I know, our kids didn't know what to make of that! I even managed to corral everyone into sitting for a family picture for our Christmas cards (almost overcooked the potatoes doing that).

Now, back to planning my shopping strategy for tomorrow...

On L'il Indians and haircuts....

Both girls had their Thanksgiving celebrations at school today. At L'il Sis' preschool, the "little" kids dressed as Pilgrims while the "big" kids dressed up as Indians. When did my baby become one of the "big" kids?! At any rate, she looked very cute and wanted to pretend to live in a "tiki" (because she just can't seem to manage pronouncing "teepee"). Or maybe it's related to her fascination with lava, volcanoes and Hawaii.

As for haircuts... well what do you suppose happens when an 8 year-old has hair-style change remorse and spends a night crying because her hair isn't long anymore? Never mind that it looks ten times better now, it just won't cover her pillow when she tries to spread it out at night. *sigh* So, I agreed to get mine cut to make her feel better. In fairness, I was thinking about getting a fresh cut anyway but I'm not sure I would've done it so soon or gone so short otherwise. But, as I told Big Sis, it's only hair and it'll grow back if I decide I don't like it down the road. Right now, I still like it but that could change tomorrow!

haircuts

I took the girls in to get their bangs trimmed today. Big Sis spent the ride their complaining that she didn't need a haircut, didn't want one and wasn't going to get one. L'il Sis, meanwhile, kept offering to go first because she knew there would be a lollipop at the end of the haircut.

When we arrived at the salon, L'il Sis decided that she wanted her hair cut short like her cousin who has a stacked bob. Once we got inside the door, Big Sis suddenly decided that if she liked the way her sister's hair turned out, she'd get the same haircut. (I've been trying to convince her for months that she needs to cut her hair with no result.) Well, she liked it so now both girls are sporting bobs.

Since I wasn't expecting such drastic haircuts (just bang trimming!), I don't have a before picture, just the after:

'Tis the season...

Around here, the Christmas decorations started going up before Halloween. It was all the more ironic considering we were still wearing shorts and sweating just walking to the car.

Another sign of the impending Holidays, one I actually enjoy seeing, is the collection boxes for Toys for Tots. Sometimes, you'll even get to see a Marine in his blues standing near the boxes to encourage donations. (And I think we can all agree that a Marine in dress blues is just nice to look at!) Did you know that Toys for Tots was started in 1947 by a Marine Corps Reservist (with a bit of prodding by his wife, of course)? Or that Walt Disney designed the logo? You can read up on its history here.


We all know that things are tight all over. In our region alone, Toys for Tots expects to provide toys for 100,000 kids this year. This is up significantly from last year. So, if you're able, consider donating to Toys for Tots.

You can see other Toys for Tots ads here, but this one has to be my favorite:

Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's Day. As we took L'il Sis to preschool, we passed a tiny parade making it's way to our town's Veteran's Memorial which is located on the corner of 2 busy streets. Canopies and chairs were in place and presumably some speeches would be made. The only other indication that it might be Veteran's Day around here were the scruffy looking young men in pseudo-cammies that I saw on a busy street corner collecting money for a Veteran's group. Unfortunately, I don't know how legitimate they were. They might be perfectly legit, but they sure didn't look it.

This Veteran's Day, I'm really missing being around a military community (which usually has a strong retiree population as well). On the other hand, I did meet a man at the Birthday Ball the other night who served as a Corpsman on Iwo Jima.

To all those who serve and have served: Thank you!

Happy Belated 233rd Birthday, Marines!

Better late than never! We celebrated the Marine Corps' 233rd birthday Sunday night. (The actual birthday was Monday, November 10.) One of the beautiful things of moving so much is that I get to recycle dresses because I'm the only one who knows how old it is or how many times I may have worn it!


The program for the evening had a page with quotations about Marines. Last year, I didn't attend a ball but provided a few of my favorite quotes. I have a new one to add to the list:


They told (us) to open up the Embassy, or "we'll blow you away." And then they looked up and saw the Marines on the roof with these really big guns, and they said in Somali, "Igaralli ahow," which means "Excuse me, I didn't mean it, my mistake."
--Karen Aquilar, in the U.S. Embassy; Mogadishu, Somalia, 1991

woot!

It's November and Stretch finally got home yesterday... in one piece, so no need to find any of his insurance policies. My days of single-parenthood are over... for now, anyway!

So, those gremlins can just go somewhere else!

Happy Halloween!

L'il Sis wanted to be a ballerina this year. It made a nice change from princesses. Big Sis originally wanted to be a rock star, but changed her mind last night. In case you aren't sure what she is, she's a "Marine princess." But this is also an improvement over last year when she decided at the very last minute to go trick-or-treating and threw a pair of wings on over her school clothes and declared herself a fairy. *sigh*

At least I'm not spending a fortune on costumes!

Oh, now what?!

Yesterday seemed to be one frustration after another. The light on the dashboard that had appeared the day before had decided to stick around, meaning I was going to have to do something about it. I thought I knew what it meant but checked the owner's manual to double-check. I was right: one of my tires needed air. Sounds simple. heh

So, I needed to put air in a tire. I also needed to buy cookies for my daughter's class party. I was supposed to send them in that morning but since I didn't remember until after the girls were in bed and there wasn't another adult around, I couldn't get them until yesterday. After dropping Big Sis off, L'il Sis and I headed to a nearby grocery store. I needed plain cookies that the kids could then decorate during their party on Friday. There were no plain cookies.

Later, we tried a warehouse store. Again, no plain cookies. Also no air at their gas station. Off to a super discount store. There was a gas station in front of it and it had air. But charged $0.75 for it. Guess who didn't have any change?

Finally found the cookies. Yay!

Went home. Fed L'il Sis. Cleaned breakfast area so I could set up the sewing machine. (I should mention here that I don't sew.) I'd cut out fabric the day before to make a cape for the girls. The plan was to put it together that day. By the time I had everything out and put together, it was time to go get Big Sis.

While picking up Big Sis, I notice that there is a sizable hole in one of my fog lights on the car. But I don't remember this happening and can't figure out where or how it happened.

After we got back, I tackled getting the needle threaded and starting the project. It took me about 30 minutes before the first stitch was made. (Have I mentioned I don't sew?) The sad part is I brought this project on myself. I looked at the pattern in the store (it was marked as an "easy" project) and actually thought, "how hard can it me?" Pretty darn hard, it turns out, if you don't sew!

I managed to get most of the pieces put together. It wasn't beautiful. But by then I was subscribing to the "close enough for government work" theory of doing business. (There is a reason I don't sew!) It was time for dinner but I still had a few things to do with the sewing machine. So I left everything where it was and took the kids out for dinner. On the way back, I remembered I still needed air for the tire. Found a gas station that had free air and (hopefully) fixed the situation. At any rate, the light went off.

After getting home and getting ready for bed, L'il Sis picked Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst for her story. How appropriate. \

Maybe I should move to Australia? Oh, wait, they're moving into summer there and we're finally moving out of it here. Never mind.

Harvest Fest

The church we've been attending here had a Harvest Fest today. It turned out to be a much bigger deal than I realized. I thought we'd be there for half an hour tops. Try a little over 2 hours.

We stopped off at the pumpkin patch first but I guess I'd left it a bit late. The pickings were pretty slim. We still got a pumpkin to carve but there weren't any little ones left for Big Sis (L'il Sis got hers earlier this week during her preschool trip to the patch).

The craft fair area was pretty small and didn't have much that I could browse with my 2 girls in tow. But then we went to the rummage sale area and Big Sis found a toy stable for her

horses. The best part was it was only $2. She could afford that.

Then we went out to the parking lot area where there was a stage set up, food booths, a firefighter static display, games and rides, and facepainting. Big Sis immediately wanted her face done. After getting tickets, that was our first stop. L'il Sis was more leery of the whole thing but soon decided she wanted a bunny on her hand. (The child is obsessed with her bunnies!)

Then we hung out waiting for the pony rides. It was hot out there and there wasn't much in the way of shade. Isn't it October?!

After pony rides, Big Sis wanted to try out the bungee-trampoline-jumping thing. L'il Sis wanted to go down an inflatable slide and then a jumpee-obstacle course. By this time, I was seriously starting to wilt from the heat and sun. Fortunately, it was almost time for the puppet show. So I herded them toward the blessedly air conditioned area for that.

I took some pictures with my camera-phone while we were there and sent them to Stretch. But it would've be so much nicer if he'd been there in person instead. One more week!

the confidence of being 4...

When I compliment L'il Sis (whether it's telling her she's smart, pretty, sweet or anything else), her response is often, "I know."





Update: This is a picture from L'il Sis' preschool outing to the pumpkin patch at our church (it's also where her preschool is). The scarecrow gave them their mini pumpkins and then they each got to buy a slightly larger pumpkin.