Out of the mouth of my Babe 2

This sickness, this hacking, snarfling, mucusy miserableness is finally leaving our lives. The pink eye is gone, as is having to put ointment in her eyes twice a day. The amoxicillin is still with us and the cough lingers a bit, but her energy is returning.

And trust me her Additude has stayed perfectly in tact over the past week. And with that attitude has been quite a few good snippets.

Like when I asked her to repeatedly not do something - jump in a puddle, grab peanuts out of the bowl, climb on the arm of couch, stomp her feet - and she did anyway triumphantly declaring I WIN!

Like when I asked her to get in bed for the umpteenth time and she slammed the door, yelling No THANKYOU I don't WANT TO. Followed soon after by a muttering of I win.

Like when when she told me she liked my beautiful blue dress and my big old butt all in the same breath.

Like when at breakfast with Grandma Patty they were discussing the color of the princesses' hair and Grandma said she had brown hair just like Belle and Addie retorted Your hair's not brown Grandma! It's gray. It's gray here and here and here...

Like when she continued to get out of bed last and her father finally threatened that all her pretty dresses were going to be Daddy and Mommy's if she got up again and she replied Boys don't wear dresses Daaaddeeee.

Or like this afternoon, when she climbed on my lap after her nap and said Gimme a hug, you're my best bud, Mama.

Princess and the Pink Eye

At the beginning of this week Addie headed off to 'Pretty as a Princess' dance camp. I stumbled across it online and knew this would be a perfect. Each day this week, from 9 to 12, Addie went to camp and learn some new dance moves, did crafts, played and generally got worn out.

On Monday she came home with painted nails, a belly full of cupcake and prancing on her tippy toes with her hands above her head. Monday was Cinderella day at camp.
On Tuesday she stayed home with a mild cough and a fever. She cried - she wanted to go to camp and dance. Thank god she didn't know that the day she missed was Belle - complete with a tea party and tea pot picture frame.
On Wednesday she trotted off to camp with Mancub (her giraffe lovey) under one arm and her princess pjs proudly on. Wednesday was Sleeping Beauty day - stories were read, dancing was done and she came home with a purple tiaria and knowing how to rest her cheek sweetly on her clasped together hands.
On Thursday off she went in her sparkly butterfly bathing suit and beach towel. It was Ariel day - they played water games and twirled. She got a flower lei and ate a popsicle. When she came home she did the Chicken Dance...and looked exhausted.

Her eyes were runny. Her nose was runny. Her cough was barking. She was a not a pretty princess. That afternoon her heart got smashed in two when our pediatrician informed us she had pink eye and a double ear infection (and now 17 other little princesses do too, in another stellar mommy moment for me).
She was icky and contagious...and not allowed to go to camp for the grand finale, or in Addie's words "the big dance". She pouted. And stomped her foot. And cried.

I hugged her and filled prescriptions and tried not to cry too.

Even though she missed the big dance at camp that did not keep her from performing. At noon today, decked out in princess paraphenalia, she danced for me, Grandma Patty and Aunt Nikki. Cinderella, Aurora and Ariel provided the music and Addie provided the moves.

It looks like she learned a thing or two in those three days of princess-y dancing - but I'll let her show you:

Thankful Thursday

What am I thankful for this Thursday?

• Four days with friends who always make me laugh - even if it resulted in one sick household.
• Amoxicillin and Lady and The Tramp.
• Crock pot dinner, chocolate and Glee with a gal pal.
• A neighbor who makes me feel included and always offers a beer.
• Having a few hours to myself, in a convertible, on a gorgeous day.
• Pretty as a Princess dance camp - even if it was cut short.
• Indoor/outdoor pillows.
• Feeling appreciated and loved.
• A nice glass of chilled Rose wine.
• Finally getting my hair short enough to make me smile.
• The return of my computer - oh how I missed you.

Summer Virus

Be patient my darlings (yes, mother that is directed to you)...My computer has been down with a nasty virus. It then kindly infected my husband's work computer and created computer chaos in our home.
It's nastiness is only rivaled by the amount of mucus and coughing that my husband and daughter are experiencing.

I feel like I should take a Lysol shower.

So while the babe and the husband continue to convalesce, my computer is back. However, it needs to be reloaded with all the bells and whistles that we lost. Hopefully that happens tonight and I can start writing, with pictures, again.

Until then, the moral of the story is: Do not surf the Internet at my father's house, you might catch the ick.

Generational Swearing

I have a potty mouth. It's a well know fact.

Since Addie has become verbal I have gotten much better, but on occasion I slip - and am quickly reminded of my indiscretion.

Tonight, while sipping gin and tonics on my father's patio, I heard him drop "ass whipping" and "kick the shit out of you" when chatting with Addie and Emmett.
My sister Kelly and I shushed him and reminded him that he was talking to to mini tape recorders (did I just date myself by saying tape recorders instead of CD burners?).
As I shushed him, I laughed. A little bit out loud and a little bit to myself.

I sorta kinda heart potty mouths.
My older brother said banned words while we were in middle school.
I once got grounded for calling my vice principal a 'frog faced ass'.
My mom convinced me that the middle finger meant "go to hell" - which caused many an argument in college about what that finger really meant. It turns out I knew lots of good words, but the gestures were lost on me.

I digress, Addie and Emmett tried to repeat Papa's phrases but couldn't quite get them right. Not like me.
I remember my first awesome curse.
It was f*ck.

I heard it and I knew it was dirty and awesome. That magical word was uttered by non-other than my Grammy Johnson. The same woman who held me on her lap and murmured songs to me. The same one who always had Jell-O Pudding Pops in the freezer.

My beloved Grammy had a cigarette in one hand and a scotch in the other and said "F*ck you, Johnny. F*ck you." (Johnny was my Grampa).

And I knew it was bad. And I loved it....almost as much as I loved her.

So, while Papa's mouth may be that of a longshoreman (making his mama and his daughter proud) it made me laugh....and I hope, one day, makes her laugh too.
'Cause Papas are awesome.

Even if they have potty mouths.

Thankful Thursdays

What am I thankful for this Thursday?

• A new scent of laundry detergent, and baskets full of clean, folded laundry.
• Spending five days with an old friend laughing (I've been thankful for that for the past two weeks).
• Sleeping in until 8, but still being up early enough to have 30 minutes to myself.
• Oil changed, tires rotated and gas tank full with the car ready to head off to Chicago.
• Newly planted Black Eyed Susans, Shasta daisies and Sedum.
• Not getting poison ivy, despite picking a big bush of "leaves of three".
• Play dates with sweet little girls who clean up after themselves.
• The anticipation of seeing old coworkers and good friends for a few moments.
• Being hours away from a glass of wine on my Dad's patio.
• Having a clean house - with mopped floors and everything.
• Knowing that when they are good, they are so very good - and so very adorable.

Boys of Summer

"School" ended two weeks ago with a farewell picnic at the park. The kids played until their cheeks were purple and hair was soaked with sweat. They munched on hot dogs and played with balloon animals and hugged their teachers goodbye.

Addison ate lunch with Dominick, played tag with Luke, Jacob and Garrett and slid the slides with Harrison and Nicholas. She made sure to say to hi Connor and inform me that Benjamin was not at the picnic.

Do you sense a theme here?

My girly girl, who insists always on dresses to twirl in, is BFF with all the boys. Cute, rough and tumble dirt covered boys. Sure, she hugged her girlfriend Madison goodbye, but for the most part it was Addie and 'her boys'.

And one of her favorite boys is our adorable little neighbor Nicholas: aka Saint Nicholas. They were in the same class. They're the same age. They live down the street from each other.

They are so stinking sweet together.

Replacement

When Addie was born my dear friend Karen came over to meet her and brought me a coffee mug and a wonderful jar of lavender scented honey balls. At first it was the honey balls that I was most excited about - they were from one of our favorite lunch spots and somehow made every cup of tea magical.

But it was the mug that I grew to love.

It was big. It had one of those perfectly shaped handles, the rim was wide, but the base was narrow. It was sturdy in my hand. Even better, the front read "Mommy Needs Sleeps" and the back read "But I'll settle for Caffeine".

It was a mug that held the perfect amount of coffee. It was used so much that there was a crack down the center. When we moved from Chicago it was one of the last things wrapped up and packed and when we arrived in Cincinnati I rooted through boxes so that my first cup of coffee in the Queen City would be familiar and comfortable.

In early March I was unloading the dishwasher and dropped my beloved it mug. It shattered across the kitchen floor. I cried. Almost uncontrollably. Almost to the point of being irrational. My mug - gone. My comfortable, sturdy, perfect mug.

After regaining my limited composure I called Karen and told her about the broken mug. I might have cried a bit. I think I was so upset because that mug got me through a year of early morning after a year of sleepless nights.

It was held through long phone conversations with Karen and Christie, after we all lived in different cities. It steeped an ideal cup of tea with a lavender honey ball.
It had steadfastly gotten me through two-and-a-half years of mothering.

Fast forward to May.

Girls Weekend - glorious girly-girltime with friends who I adore, including Karen. And Karen, who had spent an afternoon frolicking in Chicago with Addie in March, came bearing a gift.

A new humongous coffee mug. It holds half a pot of coffee. My entire hand fits in the handle. It is bright and colorful and makes me smile.

I think this mug will get me through the next hundred years of motherhood.
And I'll look back and see how tiny her hand was and smile. And be thankful for my coffee, for my daughter, and for my fabulous friend Karen.

As a sidenote, the blue bunny next to my mug also came to Girls Weekend. Apparently as Addie and Karen left the pottery shop that they created my mug masterpiece in, Addie turned to Karen and asked, oh so sweetly, "What Addie get?". So Addie got to paint the bunny, which I affectionately refer to a the decaying rabbit. Seriously who paints a bunny blue and green and orange and mustard yellow?

Oy vey. What is going on?
I KNOW!

It's been a crazy week. Okay, honestly, it's been a crazy month. Crazy full of visitors, crazy full of fun, crazy full of almost-three-years-old drama.

But that's not what this post is about. This quickie is about:
OY VEY!
I know.
I am becoming my mother - again.

When I was younger, and by younger I totally mean through freshman year of college, my mother would bribe me to behave at the A&P or Stop & Shop (holla, East Coast groceries) with food.
I remember always being offered a Slim Jim (don't even get me started on how much I LOVE Slim Jims) while cruising the aisles of the A&P in our neighborhood. At Stop & Shop I was kept in line with slices of Land O'Lakes white American cheese. Yes, it was that specific. Don't try to slip me an off brand of American cheese and don't even think about it being yellow. Ick.
Grapes were slipped out of the bag, strawberries were sampled, goldfishies were gobbled.

I always thought she did that to keep me behaving. And that may have been part of why mom served appetizers as we shopped, but it definitely wasn't the whole reason.
I am beginning to suspect it was mostly to shush me.
To not answer WHY! 79 times an hour.
To not hear my running list of things that I wanted or, better yet, needed.
To be able to simply read her shopping list without being interrupted over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

This dawned on me today as I stood at the deli counter at Meijer trying to skim my grocery list - and handing out slice after slice of ham and cheese.

Land O'Lakes White American Cheese, of course.

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*If the second picture doesn't make you laugh, you are dead inside. I'm just sayin'.