Sunday Night

Sunday night, once everyone had gone to bed, I heard plotting.  Sure enough, Ross had convinced Maisie to sneak out of her room and into his bed.  They planned a slumber party.  Mike and I told them ‘not on a school night’, to which they obliged… until the lights went out.  Mike and I pretended we didn’t hear them.  Choose your battles, right?

 

Fast forward to 11:00 p.m.  Molly wakes crying in her bed.  I cover her up and shove a ‘nigh-nigh’ blanket in her face.  She’s good.

 

Fast forward to 12:30 a.m.  Molly’s crying in her bed.  I tell Mike, “your turn”.  He rolls out of bed and does whatever he does to get her to stop.  She’s good.

 

Fast forward to 2:00 a.m.  Ross walks into my room saying he can’t find Maisie.  She’s not in his bed or her own bed.  I help him look. We turn on lights and she is nowhere to be found.  Feeling a little panicked, I climb up to Ross’ bed to feel around; nothing.  I wake Mike to tell him about the vanishing when I hear Ross announce that he found her.  She had squirmed herself to end of his bed and was buried under a sea of blankets and a herd of stuffed animals.  Luckily for us, she slept through the entire search and rescue mission.

 

Fast forward to 4:00 a.m.  I wake up to the sound of barfing and splashing. I walk into Ross’ room to see him barfing over the side of his bed.  Keep in mind his loft-bed sits 6 feet off the ground and he just lets it fly like he’s yacking off the side of a boat into an ocean.  As I look at the carpet, he assures me he didn’t get any on his herd of animals or blankets.  Meanwhile, Maisie moves back into her own bed. 

 

Fast forward to 4:30 a.m.  I hear more barfing.  By this point I make a mental note that plastic baby-wipe containers make excellent puke buckets.  Ross, who is a talker by nature, is able to talk even while barfing.  Mike and I are both surprised and impressed.  Ross feels the need to give us the play-by-play on how each hurl feels and how his puke didn’t fly nearly as far as Kelsey’s did at school last week. 

 

 

I finally get up for the day and give thanks that Maisie wasn’t kidnapped through the night, Ross will start to feel better, the carpet will come clean and I can sleep Monday night.  No bigs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slumber Party

Ross spent the night at Grandma and Papa Boyd's Friday night, therefore Maisie and Molly had their first slumber party in Maisie's bed. 

 

There were dreamlights, songs, prayers, giggles and whispers. I couldn't help but regress to the day's of sharing a room with my own sister.  I told them stories about floss-snacks, hysterical crying/laughing sounds and rescuing babies who had fallen off the boat and into the ocean. 

 

At one point I broke into song: Hush Little Baby, Don't Say A Word... but I used dramatic hand gestures and closed my eyes.  It was riviting.  The girls were captivated.  I'm sorry you missed it.

 

Once we said our final 'goodnights', the slumber party ended in less than 5 minutes.  Molly wanted to sleep in her own bed. Oh well, you've got to start somewhere.

 

In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips. ~Author Unknown

Pancake Flipper

Mike and I decided to reclaim our lives.  We explained to the kids they came into our lives, not vise-versa.  We also explained that as long as they continue to drop their coats/boots/gloves/backpacks (aka: gear) on the floor creating a “gear” path leading to the snack cupboard, I will be collecting those items and charging a 25 cent fee to return them.  Effective immediately.

 

 

Last week, I taught Ross how to make his lunch for school.  We went step-by-step on how to spread mayo, how to arrange meat and cheese to create maximum coverage, how to cut a tortilla on the diagonal and how to layer the items in a lunch box from most to least heavy.  We closed the lesson by discussing the importance of storing the lunchbox in the refrigerator overnight. 

 

 

Last night after the ‘reclaiming-our-life’ discussion, I asked told Ross to make his lunch.  He fought me on it.  The situation became heated and before long we ended up with a broken pancake flipper…all the wooden spoons were in the dishwasher. 

 

 

Believe it or not, this isn’t a Debbie Downer story.  Here’s the good part.

 

Throughout the entire ordeal, it was Maisie who lined-up the kitchen stools creating a shield around Ross. It was Maisie who tried to yank Daddy away from Ross when Daddy spanked Ross with the pancake flipper and then carried him to his room.  It was Maisie who sat with a sobbing Ross under the dining room table, threatening anyone who came near him with her evil eye.  It was Maisie who became her brothers’ protector.

 

Later, at Maisie’s gymnastics lesson, I sat with Ross and explained what Maisie had done for him.  I don’t think he realized it until that moment.  He smiled as he watched her straddle jump and giggle on the trampoline. Watching him watching her, gave me that darn ball-feeling in my throat.  I successfully willed it away… I definitely didn’t want to start bawling at Maisie’s gymnastics lesson.  Can you imagine what the instructor would think? 

 

 

In other news, Maisie now wishes she had gotten Molly’s Dreamlight for Christmas instead of her own.  She said the “indigo” color of the Butterfly Dreamlight is just so beautiful at night.



Ross freaking out about having to make a lunch.  Snapping photos of him seemed to escalate the situation. Tough luck.

Maisie climbed into the fridge to retrieve the ingredients for Ross' lunch.  She was going to make his lunch for him.

 They decided to work together.

Maisie explaining that she wouldn't let his bag of chips get smashed.

 Molly waits patiently in her booster seat.  Just another day in paradise.




 

Hair

Maisie dolled herself up this morning.  She came up with the headband/flower hair accessory combo on her own.  Look out 4-H Fashion Review, one day this girl's gonna blow you away- if I can learn to cut her bangs straight.

Molly did her own hair today too.  I'm pretty sure celebrities pay big money to achieve this look.  It takes a great face to pull it off. 

She pulls it off.

 

Break Up

3-1/4 years ago, we fell in love with the charm and mystery of a 110 year old house.  Oh, it was handsome alright, but like all great ones, needed some tweaking.  In those 3+ years, I can't even begin to count how many times I have cussed this place.  To be fair, I have not only been verbally abusive but physically abusive to this house.  I'm not proud of that, but in my defense the house has been a jerk-face.  A small 20-minute fix usually turns into something like this.

 

 

I can hear Mike cursing the "plaster" in the living room. I walk in to find this...

Oh, and I'd better not leave out this one either...

 

Let's just say the honeymoon is over.  The house and us; were breaking up.

 

Rockin' In the New Year

We spent New Year’s Day Rockin’ out with our favorite groupies.  They  could only stay for the day so we went all out. 

Let’s just say Christmas Break got a little too lengthy.  Everyone needed an escape.  The kids took the emotional escape route and chose alternative personalities.  Everyone seemed to get along better that way. 

Meet Ross' twin sister, Rachel.

On a side note, Ross’ new word is “literally”.  He literally has no clue what it means or how to use it.  Last night Molly was running around the living room naked. 

Ross: “Is Molly is ‘literally’ naked?”

Meanwhile, I literally adore him.

Green Bean Juice

 

Quote of the day from May May (aka Maisie): "When all the green beans are gone, I'm drinking the bean juice, nobody else can have it".

 

This is Maisie wishing you all a Happy New Year!