A Fishy Sort of Day

What a fun time we had for Emily's 3rd birthday! We went to the aquarium, touched Starfish, ate pizza and bleeding octopus cake and Emmy even found her bird twin.The day started with a trip to the Seattle Aquarium. We all loved it. They really found creative ways to maximize a small space. They had places where the fish were above you, and places where the fish were all around you and even places were you could touch.

While at the aquarium, Emily met her bird twin--the tufted puffin. She kept trying to tell me something and I finally got it.

"The birdie has hair like me!"

Emily chose pizza for lunch even though we went to Chuck E. Cheese's last night. She opened and loved all her presents

and then we helped ourselves to some red velvet Octopus cake that I stayed up until 2:30 this morning finishing.

It was a great day and we are so blessed to have Emily in our family. Although at times we are confused by her personality and mood swings, when she laughs or smiles it can make your heart melt.

More pictures available here.

My Mama said there'd be days like this...

This mama spent a good portion of today saying "no," or

"don't" or "stop." It has just been one of those days. Annabelle was running around crazy like she'd had 2 dozen cookies, Emily hurt herself, wouldn't listen and even tried to change her own poopy pull-up and Molly cried and cried--and Molly never cries. By 8:30am Annabelle and Emily jumping and rolling around in the living room.

At lunchtime Emily decided it was better to eat her PB&J while sitting on the table instead of in her seat. She fell off and slammed her head into the girls' little table. It swelled up the size of a ping-pong ball. It took me a good 10 minutes to convince her to let me put ice on it. Did I mention that Molly was crying all day?

While I was holding a screaming baby, holding ice to Emily's head and trying to look up concussions on the internet Emily fell asleep in my lap. I kept her on the couch under close supervision to make sure she would wake up. All 3 girls went down for a nap at the same time, but Molly wouldn't stay asleep. I had to rock her every 30 mins or so. Also, not something I ever have to do with her. Things didn't get much better after naps. While I was incapacitated feeding Molly, Emily thought it was a good idea to change her own poop. You can use your imagination on how well this went! I told Emily that she couldn't play with play dough and she apparently forgot about her blow to the head because she continued to make unsafe choices.

To the untrained eye this looks sweet.

However, that always leads to






THIS

Tomorrow can only get better, right?

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Q: What does Mom always say to you?
A: "To Be Nice" - Annabelle
"Say prayers" - Emily

Q: What makes Mom happy?
A: "To clean up your room if mom asks you to or like put your toys away. Our brush your teeth when mom wants you to." - Annabelle
"I don't know" (any guesses? - Mom) "I don't know" - Emily

Q: What makes Mom sad?
A: "If you don't do the things your mom and dad asks you to." - Annabelle
"Crying" - Emily

Q: How does Mom make you laugh?
A: "Tickle me" (anything else) "uh uh"
"Smiles" - Emily

Q: How old is Mom?
A: I don't know, I don't remember how old are you, 60?, 70?, 80?, 90? (That's enough) - Annabelle
Holds up hand, "this many" (five) - Emily

Q: How tall is Mom?
A: "80 foots tall" - Annabelle
Holds up other hand (still 5) - Emily

Q: What does Mom like to do?
A: "Do the laundry, make dinner (laughs, are you sure?) "Nawwww. Are you sure?"
"Sing songs" - Emily

Q: What is Mom's job?
A: "To feed Molly" - Annabelle (loud laughter from mom & dad)
"I don't know" - Emily

Q: What is Mom's favorite food?
A: "Green Beans, Peanut butter and jelly (are you sure those aren't your favorites?) "No, Mexican Food?" (good job Annabelle) - Annabelle
"Oranges" - Emily

Q: How do you know Mom loves you?
A: "Ummmm, cause I do the right choices" - Annabelle
"I don't remember" - Emily

WHAT DO YOUR KIDS SAY?

And We Kept Going and Going and Going...

WHO: Annabelle
WHAT: Walking up the stairs to our apartment
WHEN: 8:00AM

Annabelle says as we are on our third flight of stairs, {pointing at second floor apartment} "How come we don't live there, Or on the first floor? How come we live on the third floor?"

Well, Annabelle Mom asks herself that same question every day!

No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell down and bonked her...chin.

The monkeys: Annabelle and Emily. It took a while to get the whole story, but it turns out Annabelle and Emily were jumping on mom and dad's bed and Annabelle took at hit--to the chin--on the footboard. Horrible cries rang out, Dad snatched her up and off to the hospital they went. All the while, Annabelle screaming that she didn't want to go to the doctor. Emily missed her sister very much and even talked to her on the phone while she was at the hospital. Dad and Annabelle were miraculously only gone for 1 1/2 hours. Treatment: they glued it shut!

Big Foot

An old man in a Jag comes into work with a complaint. His concern is that the car has a hesitation when you step on the gas pedal, also an amber light comes on the dash when this happens. Of course I get the car. The first thing I do is hook up our test equipment and check the codes; just my luck nothing. I proceed to drive the car around to try and duplicate the problem. After several miles and 30 minutes, I headed back to work to get the customer to drive with me. The owner is like everyone's sweet old grandpa. From the minute I got in the car with him he had a story about everything. (I always let the customer drive--probably where I went wrong). As we pull away from the dealership he begins to let me know his dissatisfaction with the 2000 XJ8. "The car just doesn't have the power my 1988 XJ6 did." We begin to merge onto the freeway and he says "watch it will do it right here, it always does it right here." Gramps proceeds to lift his foot off the gas and then slams it down again like he's trying to squish a bug. After my head bounced off the dashboard I looked down and saw his foot planted squarely on both the gas and brake pedals. As I responded I lost all composer, "Dude, you're pressing the brake pedal!" Gramps quickly pulled his foot off and I regrouped. "Oh my, I can't believe it, my size 13 foot is just hitting both those isn't it? OK this time I will make sure I don't hit the brake." At that moment he repeated the process as before, this time missing the brake and cramming the gas to the floor. The 300 horses were all released at once launching the car into hyper drive as gramps' knuckles turned white hanging onto the steering wheel. The look on his face was like a teenager starting his first car. "Wow this thing really moves!" All the way back to the dealership he praised his car, and apologized for his big foot.

-Earl

Table Talk

Annabelle: I want to be a doctor when I grow up. Emmy, you want to be a firefighter?

Emmy: (mouth full of food, smiling) yeah!

Mom: Why do you want to be a doctor?

Annabelle: Because they have those things that listen to your heartbeat. (pause) I know why Emmy wants to be a firefighter...you want to use the hose, Emmy?

Emmy: (smiles and nods her head then says something through a mouthful of eggs and biscuit)

Annabelle: (pretending she didn't understand) Wait until your done eating.

Mom: (translating) She says she wants to be a doctor too.

Annabelle: hmm, Em, you want to be a nurse, that's kinda like a doctor?

Emmy: (smiles and nods her head)