You Might Be Raising A Liberal, When ...

A friend mentioned Jeff Foxworthy's list, "You Might Be a Redneck" the other day, and this is what popped into my mind:

You Might Be Raising A Liberal, When ...

* Your kids refer to the card game, "War," as "Higher/Lower." (that's a Heuiser thing, actually!) "Killers" have recently been re-named to the "Line Running Game" now as well.

* Your 5-year-old tells the Sunday School teacher that it's better to let the winner of each game sit out, rather than the person who lost. "That way, everyone has a chance to win and it's more fair."
(Even the Sunday School teacher was taken aback by that one!)

* When asked how many days are in a week, both Addi and Hannah answer with the Beatles' song, "Eight days a week ... I loooooooove you."

* The day Hannah learned that the big vans with pictures of ladybugs and other insects on them was actually a lawn insecticide service rather than a traveling bug show, she was so horrified that she wanted to move out of the neighborhood. She continues to shun the house which receives such services. Not to mention, she often stands on the edge of the yard and beckons all the bugs to follow her to our yard where it's safe. ;)

* This is what you see waving out the school bus window every afternoon when your daughter heads to school. My heart still melts ... which is why I don't have an actual photo!

* When the kangaroo began taunting Horton in the play, Horton Hears A Who, Addi stands up in in her seat, shakes her tiny finger and shouts, "You're not bein' nice, ya Big Bad Meanie! You leava him alone!"
(Hats off to the actors for not even flinching on that one! A thousand apologies were sent the following day!)

* Adelaide instinctively knows to look at Mom and wipe a tear away while listening to Peter Yarrow sing "Puff the Magic Dragon" with a bunch of kids on stage - sweetest thing ever!

* Hannah wants to marry her best friend (who, of course, is a girl), and is blissfully ignorant of the fact that such a thing is in jeopardy right now. I hope she never has to learn of such hatred.

Oh to keep them young! I have a feeling this will be an ongoing list, so more will come later! ;)

Bedtime Vanity

What does a shiny silver platter and two clothespins have to do with one another you ask? They are Hannah's latest stalling techniques when going to bed!

I walked past her door last night 45 minutes after bedtime, and noticed light coming from under her door. All was silent, so I thought she had fallen asleep with the light on. But when I opened the door, I find Hannah bent over the silver platter, intently gazing at her reflection, while braiding and twisting her hair into numerous buns on top of her head. She then fastened them with the clothespins!

"Won't this make my hair look pretty tomorrow, Ma Ma?!"

Oy!

Miss Congeniality

With a few days of Kindergarten under our belt, I can safely say Hannah is doing great! I should also say that no one is more surprised at this fact than me! ;)

At the end of each school day, I expected Hannah to be overwhelmed, beyond crabby and wanting space from her number one fan, Adelaide. I had a list of distractions a mile long in an attempt to keep the peace each day before bedtime.

But then school started, and I don't know what on earth they did with my Hannah! Alien abduction, perhaps? She bounces off the bus, smiling ear to ear, and invites everyone at the bus stop (which consists of SEVERAL kids) to our house to play and have an after-school snack. It's as if she's morphed into this sorority girl! Here I was worrying about all these trivial things like making sure she gets on the right bus, finds her way in the wide, wide world, blah, blah, blah. But apparently, she's switched from, Most Likely to be Living with Your Mother at 40 to Miss Congeniality!

When she came home the first day, she talked of tapping fellow classmates on their heads to get their attention, then leaning over to ask if they wanted to be her friend. Ha! I find this hard to believe coming from the girl who spends more time with her face buried in my legs than actually conversing with strangers! She also said she winked at fellow t-ball players she recognized from her team this summer. Winked? WHO IS THIS GIRL?! I'm even shocked she recognized anyone from t-ball as most games were spent either sobbing uncontrollably or tightly clenching my hand as I tried in vain to drag her tiny little body into the ready position. 

Mind blown!

On her second day, I asked if she made a new friend that day (as preschool required MUCH prodding in this area). But I was met with a resounding "no," and an eye roll to go along with it. 
"Well, maybe you'll meet a new friend tomorrow. That will be fun, won't it?"
"No, Mom. I didn't make one friend today, because I just really couldn't decide. I made like three or four new friends," she coolly remarks. 
 
(I dropped the plate I was holding with this one!)

Something else that is absent (but certainly not missed!) is the attitude that seemed to infect almost every moment during the weeks preceding the start of school. Looking back on it, I think it was Hannah's attempt to become more independent and convince herself that she could be away from me, but MAN it was ugly! Argumentative, precocious ... just the tip of the ice berg! After one particularly rough day spent arguing and complaining, I overheard a discussion Hannah was having with Jeff. 
"Mom says that numbers keep going on and on - that there's never really an end. Ha! She is sooo silly!"
Standing out of sight in the hallway, my blood began to boil, but Jeff kept his cool and told her that this was true. "You can always keep counting higher and higher. Mom is right."
Well, that didn't sit well with Hannah! She stomped out of the room, found me in the hallway and huffed, "You are on the other side of the world from me!"
"What does that even mean, Hannah?"
"It means that everything on the other side of the world is the opposite from where we are. It means I am right, and you ... are wrong."

Oh boy! I thought we had a few more years before teenage hell began! Needless to say, this attitude of hers helped me get ready for Hannah to go to school! ;) Turns out, the anticipation of school was more stressful than actually going, so the dragon has retreated back into her cave. Thank goodness!

On the other end of the spectrum is our Mello Miss Adelaide, who has not really thrown a tantrum of Hannah proportions in her entire life. That is, until Hannah's first day of school. She even had an encore the second day! It would seem Little Miss really likes the spotlight and one-on-one time with mom for 3.5 hours in the day, and still has many more things left on her To-Do list when her big sister steps off the bus. So that mile-long list of distractions hasn't gone to waste - just reassigned! I think we may have found our new groove by playing with trains and basking in the spotlight of being a temporary only child. Never a dull moment!

Now that we have our emotions under control, maybe we can start to focus on something called education! The teachers don't want parents correcting their kids - for obvious reasons as Spanish is not our native language - but when Hannah skips through the house singing "Dwaynos Bartays" rather than "Buenos Tardes," I'm finding it hard to bite my tongue! 

Small steps, I suppose! ;)
* Disclaimer: I realize those of you with school-age kids are probably chuckling right about now thinking, "just you wait!" Ha! I'm sure Hannah will have meltdowns of gigantic proportions in the weeks/months/years to come, but I will be forever grateful for such a positive start to school! Any tips on dealing with delayed meltdowns would be much appreciated, however!

Kindergarten Champ!

She did it! No tears and even a few smiles - whoo hooo!!! With some school bus cupcakes to celebrate, these star children had a great day at school! Next year, we'll get Caleb to wear a coordinating outfit, too!

Our future Dolphin Trainer/Artist/Olympic Medalist/Entomologist!

She (or maybe just me!) had a little bit of nerves at first, but she pulled through!

Hannah was also quick to note that they DO speak some English there, contrary to what I told her.
"They said our names in English, so they must be able to speak English there sometimes!"  :)

 

A call to her dearest Hannah Nguyen wrapped up the end of a perfect first day, and made her seem even OLDER - ufda!

Big sigh of relief by all tonight!

Addi's Pickin' Up the Pace!

With kindergarten quickly upon us, we've been spending lots of extra time trying to get our top diva (Hannah) to take the drama down a notch or two and start prepping her for being away from Mom and Sister for longer stretches of time. There are endless stories about how that process is blundering about, but I wouldn't even know where to start! ;) Anyway ... the funny thing about all this is that Hannah has turned a deaf ear to all of it (of course!), but Adelaide is soaking it all in. I knew we were coddling her in several areas, but what I didn't know was that SHE knew that as well! Little turkey!

This last week of summer, I've started to kind of lay it on thick, and Hannah is thankfully taking baby steps. Addi on the other hand ... Well, she's our distance runner! In the past three days, Addi has:
1) Gotten rid of her nuk at bedtime (and without incident ... I think she purposefully lost it, actually!)
2) Pretty much given up on naps (not a real winner in my mind, but she's convinced it goes along with being a big girl!)
3) Finally started to pedal her trike by herself - this was where the major coddling was done on my part, simply because we needed to keep up with Hannah on her bike and Addi is the definition of a dawdler!
4) Pump on the swing. However, she often comes down with a case of sudden amnesia when anyone stands within close proximity.  :p
5) Learned how to count in Spanish (with a little help), roll her Rs when saying "Marrrrrta," and ever-so-slyly corrects her older sister and knocks her off her pedestal by leaning over and whispering in her ear, "No Hannah. That not 'verde,' that's 'rojo."

Guess who's listening! ;)
So it has been a pretty funny week around here! Jeff and I have always joked that Addi is more ready for kindergarten than Hannah, but the things she's picked up in this week alone have been pretty awesome! We better watch out for this one!

Kindergarten, Kindergarten!

We are eight days and counting until Hannah starts Kindergarten, and if you somehow haven't heard the news and have missed my exorbitant amount of screaming and jumping for joy that certainly sent ripples around the world by now ... WE GOT INTO SPANISH IMMERSION!!!!!! It's been an emotional roller coaster lately, and now that things are settling down and we know where we stand, etc., I can't for the life of me figure out why it has been this hard!

All I can say is, whoever thought it was a good idea to give parents options regarding which elementary school their child should attend should be locked up. Or better yet, he should be required to coordinate a PTO meeting with deranged parents like myself, who somehow became so obsessed with picking the right school for their 5-year-old, that they lose sight of everything else. But, it should be said, I have only been able to say this and have any sense of clarity since last Friday when we got the news our number was up! Before that, I was still on the brink of tears regarding any number of subjects, including, but not limited to: school, Hannah turning 5, saying goodbye to preschool, riding a bus, enjoying our "last summer," packing a lunch, eating a lunch in 20 minutes or less, choosing a backpack, worrying about some brat spilling the beans about Santa ... the list goes on. I was wreck on multiple levels!

Anyway, our trip through Crazy Land has finally come to an end - phew! It began with a school known for problems with bullying, and it took a detour with a school that didn't smell of paste and crayons as an elementary school should; but rather computers, Clorox and conceitedness (a nasty triad of Cs!), but we finally made it! And not a moment too soon - eeks! And now that we're in, I can stop being so crazy! Well ... in regards to which school the girls go to at least!

Hannah is THRILLED to be going to "Caleb and Marta's" school, and she and Addi have spent the last two days practicing rolling their Rs when they say, "Marrrrrrrrrrrrta" and arrrrrrriba! Rather than having Carmen Miranda in our living room, it sounds like a couple of tigers, but it's still pretty funny!

We found out her teacher's name today, and apparently she is also the drama coach for the school - how fitting! She may meet her match when Hannah walks through her doors, however!

With any luck, Hannah won't pull one of her dramatic goodbyes, and we'll be off without a hitch! She's averaging 1 clean break out of 4 in the different camps/sporting activities she's been in this summer (no laughing!), so there IS a chance she can say goodbye without bringing us all down with her!

¡Olé!

Meet Gilbert

Jeff and I could retire right now if I had a nickel for every time I said, "We can't possibly handle any more 'pets' around here." And yet, we always seem to get just one more!

Today was no exception, but it was definitely something out of the ordinary! We were all out in the backyard playing when this strange bird started swooping down at us and trying to land on the girls' heads. Penny instantly went into protective mode and thought her duty was to protect her girls by lunging and snapping at the bird, and by default the girls' heads! I think it's safe to say we all screamed loud enough for everyone in a 20-block radius to hear. When I was finally able to get Penny inside, I shooed the girls in the front yard thinking we must have stumbled onto the bird's nest and got it all worked up. But that dang bird followed us and kept trying to land on our heads! Our screaming, clapping and frantic arm waving didn't phase it one bit!

Now, it should be said ... it's times like this when I'm ever so grateful for Jeff's ability to stay cool in the midst of what would seem a disaster! Upon rounding the corner and hearing all the commotion the three of us were stirring, he calmly chuckles and holds out his hand for the bird to land on. "It's just a baby robin - no worries!"  Ha! Easy to say when you're not the one being dive bombed, I guess!

And Jeff was right, there wasn't anything to worry about! For the remainder of the day, we got a little more acquainted to this new friend of ours, dubbed Gilbert, or Gill Bird as Addi calls him. We now think he's a young Starling, rather than a robin, but verdict's still out. Do you guys have any clue?

Whatever he is, he must have been imprinted on humans, as he is tamer than most pet birds. If we put him down in the grass, he instantly flies back to our shoulders or laps. He waddles through the grass after the girls like a lost little puppy dog - which is quite possibly the most adorable thing ever! When we finally managed to convince Hannah and Adelaide to come inside for a few minutes to clean up and have lunch, Gilbert sat just outside the window squawking at us until we came back out to him.

Gilbert driving Penny nuts just outside the window while we ate lunch.

Later in the afternoon, we ever-so-briefly went into the house through the back door to get a snack, and then came out the front door to say hello to neighbors, and Gilbert flew around the corner of the house at lightening speed in order to land on my shoulder before both feet hit the first step!

Cute as this may be, I was getting a bit worried about the 20-minute feeding schedule Gilbert was demanding! But, after doing a little reading on what and how often baby birds eat, we were relieved to discover that he can catch ants, box-elder bugs and spiders on his own while playing with us in the grass, so hopefully he'll just need a little boost from us for a day or two until he can make it on his own in the wild.

But what a reminder at just how wonderful it is to live in the moment! When we woke up this morning, we had planned to stain part of the deck and maybe replace a garage window or two today. (We really know how to live the high life, I know!) Now that evening has set in, of course none of those projects even got a consideration! Instead, we have spent almost every minute catering to a very gentile Gilbert and basking in the girls' laughter! The two of them dug up countless worms for him, picked raspberries from their treasured garden patch and helped cut up cherries into little pieces to drop down into his very large mouth.

It has truly been a remarkable day!

Vet Visits - Ufda!

As you know, Hannah would rather throw out a few death glares and dish out the silent treatment than shake hands with a stranger. If confronted (and by "confronted," I mean simply being glanced at, or heaven forbid ... talked to) before she has finished sizing you up, all is lost. Lips seal, eyes narrow, and her face quickly gets buried into my legs.

However, there are a few exceptions to this rule that always catch me off guard. The vet is one of these. We see this lovely man who is extremely kind and soft spoken, so much so that he not only puts Penny and Arthur at ease, but he allows Hannah to open up as well. Now it would seem like this would be a good thing. Hannah does need to practice coming out of her shell a bit more, but the number of children working against accompanying me has already doubled on such visits, and the amount of chaos has no choice but to grow exponentially right along with it.

The vet rooms are maybe 6'x6' and they all have a rather large examination table in them. By the time you add 2-3 adults, an 80-pound dog, a 14-pound cat and two (now seemingly rambunctious) little girls chattering away, it's enough to send the vet techs to the back room to take a hit off some horse tranquilizers!

The few times the vet has a chance to jump in with a question regarding the cat or dog, Hannah and Adelaide blurt out the answer and top it off with an average of 10+ stories starring Penny and Arthur as well. The vet and the technicians chuckle and remark at how lovely the girls are and how blessed I am to have such good "helpers" when it comes to taking care of our fur balls.

"With all these stories, I feel like I've known your family for years," the vet tells Hannah with a little pat to her head. Sadly, he probably does know us better than most with the amount of information that is doled out during our visits!

But by the end of our mere 10-minute visit when Hannah and Addi are STILL talking nonstop, the vet's eyes seem oddly stuck open in an alarmed sort of state, and he and the technician begin to inch their way back to the door with a baffled look on their faces. Without fail, the vet always comes back a second later and cracks the door just enough to stick his nose in and ask if we need any help getting everyone to the car. I used to think they were just being nice. But I'm pretty sure they don't ask that to everyone who walks through their doors. Perhaps they see us walking in, which I'm sure is a sight to behold. Penny on her leash lunging anyway but forward, while I'm awkwardly carrying the cat carrier that periodically lurches from one side to the other whenever Arthur decides to change his view point, and Hannah and Addi are skipping alongside me while gripping my shorts (as I don't have any hands to hold theirs while weaving through the parking lot) all the while singing a variety of songs horribly off key. I'm surprised the vet doesn't run and hide before we even make it to the door!

Perhaps I'm putting the wrong two animals in the crate!

So this year, I tried making separate appointments thinking it would be easier to control just three of them each visit. Sadly, if there was any change, it was negligible. Plus, it just meant we got to do it all over again with the cat a few weeks later.

Oh well. At least that means a second round of margaritas after the chatterboxes go down for the night! Thank goodness check-ups are just once a year!