A Little Bit of That Ole Disney Magic

Today we all went down to Seattle to see Playhouse Disney Live! I bought the tickets in September, gave them to the girls for Christmas and finally got to go today. It was their first time going to a live performance. We had a great time singing and dancing and patting our legs--It was a very interactive show. I really enjoyed watching the girls watch the show. Emily, of course, didn't outwardly show much excitement, but I could still tell she was having a good time. Annabelle was really getting into it--doing everything they asked the audience to do.

Here are a few things I learned today:

Fact: Intermissions should not be allowed during a show where the audience is primarily children. If it is absolutely necessary then it should be limited to 7 minutes MAX.

Fact: It is absurd that alcohol is served at a kid's show, although it worked out nicely for the little girl behind us; once her mom got tipsy she was easily able to convince her to spend $20 on a light stick that she had been told NO to before.

Fact: It doesn't make much sense to have everyone in the audience stand and then have them learn a dance that is going on onstage--once everyone is standing the kids can't see the stage over all the adults.

Fact: You don't have to spend $45 per ticket--you will have just as much fun in the $18 seats.

Fact: You're never too old to get choked up over seeing Mickey Mouse for the first time.

The show featured Little Einsteins, Tigger & Pooh, Handy Manny, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Baby Trends

It was a Sunday afternoon, two and a half years ago. Earl and I were in the living room when suddenly I realized that it was very quiet in the house and that I hadn't seen Annabelle in quite some time. I knew this meant trouble, so I set out to see what she was up to.

I walked down the hall and to find that the bathroom door was closed. I opened it to and there was Annabelle standing on a stool in front of the mirror with a pair of scissors in her hand. The damage had already been done. I screamed! I was horrified at what I saw. I came running out yelling to Earl what Annabelle had done to her beautiful head. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was completely hysterical. Annabelle was quite traumatized to see my reaction. Earl was trying to calm her down and calm me down at the same time. He wasn't so successful with me which could be why he ended up sending me to my room, literally. I sat in there for 30 minutes--mostly crying. I was really upset people! I finally calmed myself down and came out to find that Earl had chopped the rest of her hair off to match what she had done. Thus leading to the several months she spent looking like Dora the Explorer.

Earl and I had gotten the hair cutting scissors out before church to trim Annabelle's bangs (I realize now by the pictures that we should not have been allowed to do such a thing) and we had left everything out while we were gone and forgotten to put it away before this happened. Annabelle's favorite part of the story to recount was Dad sending Mom to her room.

You may wonder, Why rehash something that happened over two years ago? Because apparently having to live through this one time isn't enough.

After staring at Annabelle's bangs in her eyes for a week I decided today that I needed to trim them. (I had watched the stylist do it recently and felt more confident in my ability to do a better job than before) I got the scissors out and sat Annabelle down on the counter in her bathroom. It took me a few minutes, but I found a point where I was satisfied. She was covered in hair so I stuck her in the shower and went to retrieve Emily to join her. I walked into my bedroom and saw her drop something. She looked at me and I screamed (yes again) "Emmy, NO!" She immediately started balling. "Emmy, why did you cut your hair?!" I knelt down to hold her, but I didn't want to comfort her too much--why wasn't Earl home so that he could comfort and I could freak out? Annabelle came in and saw what had happened. She told me that I needed to make Emmy feel better. She told Em that it was OK, she had cut her hair once too. I was hugging Em, but I certainly wasn't going to tell her that it was OK. I sent them both to the shower and overheard Emmy telling Annabelle that she just wanted to do what she was doing. Oh heavens! Little sisters want to be just like Big Sisters. Well, I'm definitely not cutting the rest of Em's hair to match. There will be no little blond Dora's around here. I told her that she will be wearing a barrette for awhile.

I'm seeing a trend here with my 3 year old girls and I don't like what it's implying my little Molly will do.

Fishin'

Tonight we all went fishin' ... found a copper nickel.

This is the actual nickel that Emmy swallowed on Sunday night. We cleaned it and it's going in the baby book. I bet none of you have a mom so cool as to keep something that went all the way through your digestive track. HA!

Who Knew?

Pillow fights are a game played to let out energy and rage in a mostly harmless way. Each player either starts off with a pillow or has to find the pillows hidden throughout the house. Then each player starts to attack the other player with the pillow, trying to avoid being smacked by a player in the head. They usually aim for the legs and stomach area. In this game there is no winner. The game ends when all the players are tired or the players just decide to surrender, or someone cheats by taking all of the pillows, or if one is knocked to the floor... Overall the game is just senseless fun and is not played for a prize but for its entertainment value.

Apparently, I should have googled the rules of a proper pillow fight and explained them to the girls before this afternoon. Some guidelines here were followed, others--not so much. The girls definitely had some energy to burn. They took all of the pillows from our couches to use as their arsenal. There were no hits that were off limits. And I think there was clearly a winner here.

I wasn't really aware of what was going on (I'm very sleep deprived) until Annabelle came running out with a bloody hand towel and said that Emily hit her with a pillow in the head and it pulled out her loose tooth. She was quite hysterical over the blood. I told her it was fine and asked her where the tooth was. She informed me that she dropped it in the potty. WHAT?! Have I not been in the potty enough this week searching for Emily's money? I went to investigate and there it was, in the toilet, a toilet that had been used and of course--not flushed. I almost told Annabelle, so sorry, but it's gone. I tired to convince her to get it out of the toilet herself, but no such luck. I really didn't want to go in there again. I burst out with a thought, A SPOON! I was able to get a spoon and scoop it off the surface of the toilet paper that was still floating at the top. We soaked it in some bleach water and then gave it over to Annabelle to put under her pillow and await her reward. Who knew that a pillow could knock some one's tooth out? And who knew that I would have so many unpleasant encounters with a commode!

Her tooth really isn't yellow. I had a hard time taking a closeup picture and I think it was caused by the lighting and the flash.

Hide & Seek

If you had a nickel and wanted to keep it safe where would you put it? Oh, did I mention that you're 3 years old? So, you're 3 years old and you have a very special nickel and you want to keep it safe; where would you keep it?

Our very special 3 year old with a very special nickel thought that the best way to keep a nickel safe was to swallow it.

Earl and I put the girls to bed and within 10 minutes rushed into the room to the sounds of Annabelle crying and screaming and Emily vomiting. Annabelle told us that she thought Emily ate her nickel. We don't really know what happened, but based on our girls' personalities and past experience we think Annabelle was teasing Emily that she was going to get her nickel and Emily wanted to keep it safe by putting it in her mouth. This was a terrible idea since Emily was laying down. It was scary to see and I'm sure even more scary to experience.

Emily is fine now. She seemed completely recovered within 10 minutes of the whole ordeal. We are sure she will wake up very hungry tomorrow. And of course: What goes in, must come out! Something to look forward to...