I don't understand.

It's April 25. I took these pictures 10 minutes ago. I don't know what to say.
My poor, confused Tulips.

Guess again

So you know those days when you think you're sort of getting it together? I was having one of those.

It's chilly, but I sent the girls in the backyard to run obstacle courses of their own making and to draw with sidewalk chalk. They were thrilled that I suggested it, instead of having to beg and beg. Off they went. They ran around, made some drawings. I kept an eye on them and got a couple of things done. Then I braced myself -- it was time to come in. This is why they beg me to go outside, because I have to beg them to come in. It's a fight. There are tears. Sometimes for all. "Ok girls, go run around the back tree and then come in." They did. No arguing. Tears of joy.

It was a little windy as well, so I thought it'd be best to give them a quick brush before they laid down on the snarls. As I'm brushing Natalie's hair, I come to a major snarl. What on earth??? I take the section of hair to examine it -- DOH!!! Bird. Poop. GROSS.

So my tidy little playtime followed by my quick and easy lunchtime was scrapped for bath time. With a double washing.

On a side note: Sweet potatoes are my new favorite. Butter (well, Brummel & Brown), brown sugar (ok fine, it's brown sugar substitute), cinnamon and a little ground ginger. Thank you, Kayla, for making me get one at Whiskey Creek, and then telling me it'd be easy to make them at home.

10 Deep Dark Secrets

I got tagged! It's my first tag! Courtesy of my friend Aimee over at Libbyland. So apparently I know must share with you 10 Deep Dark Secrets about little old me. I'm sure my 5 readers will know most of them.

1. I used to play sports. Softball, track, volleyball. Long, long ago. I also used to downhill ski and bike. Really very long ago.
2. I don't like heights. My stomach flip flops when other people go near an edge. I wasn't bothered by them growing up, when I had my immortality. Now it's a problem.
3. My ears used to be pierced 10 times, 6 on one side 4 on the other.
4. I was on the speech team in high school. One year I was in poetry, and did really awful feminist poems (not that all feminist poetry is awful, but these were). I sort of relished when one of the guys from our team was in the same round as me, because I'd stare right at him with the evil eye and watch him try to crawl under his chair. I'm sorry David.
5. I thought Brennan enunciated too clearly when I met him, and therefore couldn't imagine dating him. Until the next day.
6. I have always had a love for shoes. In high school I once counted and had 75 prs.
7. I never wanted to live in my hometown again, and now I do -- and I even like it.
8. I want to learn to play guitar.
9. I went to a Concordia Language Village camp in high school for a month to learn French. (GEEK!)
10. I have three tattoos, so far...

Ok, I will tag Beef Trifle, At least we know, Jersey's Musings, Schneid Remarks and Wiethoff Family Journal. Let's dish.

Adventures in Parenting

A post over at Antique Mommy got me thinking about some of the now funny adventures we've had in learning to become parents (if you have time, read Antique Mommy's too, it's hilarious).

When we were about the leave the hospital with Ella, the nurses made us give her a bath first. It seemed like the hardest possible way to do it (we had to stick her in a small tub, not one of the handy baby bath tubs). In any case, the poor girl looked like she was freezing by the time we were done, so Brennan picks her up and holds her close to warm her up as he moves her over to the towel. At which point, Ella poops right down the front of his shirt. Of course he didn't have a change of clothes, but I had stolen one of his shirts to wear to the hospital, so he was able to wear that. We knew our place after that.

Then when Ella was a few months old, she started crying over her bedtime bottle. Just screaming. Howling. This went on for about an hour. She would chow down on her bottle for 2 seconds, and then spit it out. We could not figure it out for the life of us. Then we noticed the bottle was just as full as when we started. Turned out the hole in the nipple wasn't totally cut, so she wasn't getting anything. Brennan says, and he's probably right, that had a representative from Playtex been in the room, I would have killed him or her with my bare hands.

She must have been quite a bit older one day at the Pizza Ranch for lunch, when I noticed something clear and goopy had fallen out of her diaper. The silica gel (or whatever it is) in diapers that does all the absorbing was falling out. That's when I discovered the entire package of Huggies I had purchased had slits in the back of them. The package hadn't been damaged, so it happened before they made it in the plastic. That pretty much rendered the entire package useless. Although I was able to return it to Target, and then Huggies sent me some coupons.

I will now admit my most humiliating. When Ella started eating, I was hyper sensitive to choking hazards. It really freaked me out. So, yes, I did break her first cheerios in half. THERE. I said it.

I'm not going to say I've made no mistakes with Natalie, or had nothing humorous, but none are as notable as those first time parent things. Anybody else have something good?

~~~~~~~~~

So this weekend I beat Brennan in Scrabble. He actually went off to sulk a bit. Ella goes to comfort him. "Dad, sometimes I don't win games either. So I go in my room, and sit on my bed...and I think of a tricky game to play that I can win!"