January 2008

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November 2008

December 2008

Last night a few windows were left cracked open and the outside air has lowered the temperature inside. Consequently it is super chilly in our house today. The girls and I were sitting downstairs, huddled under a blanket and trying to warm up, when DD2 slipped away, only to return with two sets of keys. The metal on the keys was ultra cold, they literally felt like they had been stored in a freezer.

DD1, asked my middle child, “DD2, did you put these in the freezer? These are freezing!”

DD2 shook her head and replied in her limited vocabulary, “No peezing. Melting.”

I tried to clarify, “You mean freezing right? These keys are freezing, they aren’t melting.”

Frustrated with the correction DD2 declared. “Melt, melt, melt. Keys melting.”

Then she touched the keys, shivered, gave us a look of satisfaction and stated again for good measure. “See melting.”

*** *** ***
Later I walked in on the girls sitting on the floor of the living room, watching cartoons. As I asked them what they were watching I realized, on my own, that they were watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

DD2, however, confidently answered my question with, “Teeny turtles.”

LOL.

And I’m not sure what more needs to be said. Except that I stopped listening when the total repairs on the car inched past the $1500 mark. For an $800 car, Dave’s car has really cost us. Bleck.

The girls are supposed to be napping with their Dad. However, I am hearing the suspicious sounds of little feet on the floor above me. It wouldn’t take a betting woman to determine the kids have won and Dh is sleeping.

but NaNoWiMo starts in just a couple short weeks. It’s been at the back of my brain, niggling my thoughts and prompting me to compose lengthy paragraphs in my head. Unfortunately, all this dreaming about actually writing a novel is not nearly as constructive as a person might imagine.

So, tonight I decided to do some research on how to go about writing a novel. Mainly because I’m scared I’ll start this thing, and never actually finish. Which, in my own opinion, is worse than having never started. (Although, I’m sure that sentiment does not mesh well with the “it is better to have tried and failed, then to have never tried at all” mentality. Go figure.)

Anyway, I ran across a site that talks about preparing to write a novel. He uses what he calls “the snowflake method.” In many ways, his method is very similar to the written plot/time-line approach I was taught in eleventh grade literature. Call me nostalgic, but it appeals to me to do something familiar.

The down side to it all is that his approach takes pre-planning and lots of time, and frankly I’m not sure if it’s within the rules of NaNoWiMo to do all your planning before November. Having said that, if I do all the pre-planning now, by November all I will have to do is the actually writing of the novel. Everything will be ready and the chances of me actually succeeding skyrockets.

But then, it’s my novel. I get to set the pace, and I get to set the rules. So I say all this snowflake-book-planning can be done before NaNoWiMo kicks off.

And that’s that.

I think.

Remind me later to tell you about the crash pad I’m building. It’s not related to writing a novel, and feels inappropriate to really get into within this entry.

People ask me why I insist on DD1 taking a daily mid-day nap. After all, there are quite a few preschoolers out there who no longer need a mid-day rest; let alone a mid-day nap. Often I have a hard time articulating why I insist on it, and resort to a feable, “She just needs one.”

And then, a day like today happens. Not that much happened. In fact, it was a fairly uneventful day of running short errands, doing some housework, and even squeezing in a little dance class for DD1. The only real thing that stands out from today is the fact that DD1 didn’t nap.

One evening of an unrested DD1 is all it takes to remind me why I’m so adamant about mid-day naps.

As I type this, her over-energized-juiced-up body is in serious over drive. She is literally running into walls and bouncing on every imaginable surface. She’s speaking at a completely un-modulated volume, and is otherwise unreasonably giddy and hyper. Every direction is met with a blank face and an incomprehensible wild-eyed confusion and intensity.

I am exhausted by just being in the same room with her.

In fact, it is this level of insanity that, I believe, prompted last week’s hair dressing session in the playroom. (See picture to visualize the extent of the “dressing” that was accomplished before they were discovered.) It is also this level of intensity that has me seeking multi-sensory activities for DD1 to do on an everyday basis.

And, in a small part, it is this level of insanity and energy that has prompted Dh and I to get DD1 evaluated for SPD. We will find out on Wednesday what the verdict is. I would be lying if a part of me isn’t more than a little apprehensive about the results. Although, I’m not sure what is more daunting. The idea that she may have SPD. Or the idea that she doesn’t.

DD1 had a nightmare tonight. She woke up crying and spent a good little while sitting next to me, looking sad and disturbed. I asked if she wanted to tell me about her dream and she explained that she had been in a room with stickers all over the wall. She showed me with her hands all the places the stickers were. Then she said she tried to go take a nap in the sticker room but creepies came up under the door, filled the room and covered her.

I asked, what kind of creepies and she made a spider motion with her hand.

So I asked, “do you mean spiders?”

And she nodded her head and replied, “only scarier.”

I can’t sleep either.

and because I don’t know how to tell when too much is really too much… I’ve decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. One of the rules for NaNoWriMo is to tell everyone that you plan on writing a Novel in November. That way, according to the rules, it will be “the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who’ve had to hear about your novel for the past month.”

So there, I’ve said it out loud.

And now I’m wishing November was here already. I’m also wishing this week wasn’t so stinking busy, because I’d love to start today.

Yesterday kicked off the Olympics. (In case you were hiding under a rock and you missed it.) I wasn’t planning on watching the opening ceremony. For no other reason except for I get totally annoyed that it takes so stinking long to get to “United States of America” during the Parade of Nations. As it turns out, though, my two eldest were interested in the fireworks (giant exploding footprints… doesn’t get any cooler.) So, we left it on and watched the ceremony. At least we watched most of it. I kept it on through a third of the Parade of Nations and then had to convince the girls to go to bed.

Ironically, we still missed the US entrance, even with the unique character stroke scoring system they used (instead of the standard Alphabet listing.) So this morning we watched the important portions that we missed on nbc’s olympic site: www.nbcolympics.com

Olympic kick-off aside, the girls and I also celebrated 08-08-08 by going to the Children’s Museum with a friend and her kiddos. The girls really enjoy the Children’s discovery area. They have a new hot air balloon exhibit that fascinated both DD1 and DD2. We talked a little bit about hot air rising and they enjoyed pressing the button and watching the whole process in practice.

If I remember, I plan on taking them back to the Plano Balloon fest again this year. We went last year when DD3 was just a few days old. I know they’d enjoy returning and seeing life size hot air balloons in action.

There are two really amazing contests going on right now. One is from Nature’s Child. The winner gets a bumGenius 3.0 Starter Kit: 18 diapers, diaper sprayer, a dozen cloth wipes, and a bottle of odor remover.

You just have to answer the question:

1) It’s hot. So hot you force your kids to share the kiddie pool with you, only after adding a couple pounds of ice. What do you do to beat the heat?

If that wasn’t enough, Along for the Ride is also hosting a summer contest. Winner gets:

Winner will receive the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride. The essential babywearing stash includes one Gypsy Mama Wrap, one Hotslings pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Beco Butterfly, and one ZoloWear Ring Sling - in their choice of any in-stock colors or patterns.

Do you have ANY idea how stinking cool it would be to win that stash of babywearing items? I think I would fall over from sheer shock!

Entry is simple. Just share your best babywearing advice. “Share the tidbit with us that has saved you with that babe in a carrier.”

Both entries have a closing date of Midnight on the 31st of July. I suggest entering today. lol.