ABCZ

I just love these pictures. The title says it all. Other than the fact that they were taken at 9pm.



We were at my nephew Anthony's birthday party a few weeks ago. It was Tracy's BRILLIANT idea to do a CIRCUS - in her HOUSE! (I say that sincerely, as a mom who would love to some day plan a party as cool for Anna, and SARCASTICALLY as the girl who spent the evening with her hair and body covered in blue cotton candy). The kids had a BLAST. But pizza and games and toys and the cotton candy machine and the ice cream. Oy vey. Sugar high. As one of Anthony's dorkier, but very cute, little friends confided in me, "THIS is why you don't give kids cotton candy before bed time." Such wise, wise words from a 7 year old.

Anyway - the party rocked. Tracy gets mom of the year award. Here are a few of my fav pics. We're going up to visit this weekend and Anna is already SUPEr excited, because she loves her Aunt Tracy. Should be fun! But NO COTTON CANDY!!!!

Every night before bed, we say prayers together. We either say The Lord's Prayer or the "Night Night" prayer (Now I lay me down to sleep....). Anna has decided that SAYING prayers is boring, and that she preferrs to SING her prayers. She makes up her own tune and melody as she goes along. It's different every time. It's adorable. I'm glad that she's enjoying prayer. It's a great thing.

We're trying a new "go to bed" scheme. In an effort to wean Anna from the 3 hour process of sips of water, 'help' going potty, needing a new Kleenex, losing a lovie, needing new covers, etc... She gets a sticker if we don't have to go back into her room after we tuck her in - 5 stickers gets her a new movie (Her first 'pick' was Diego). It was actually working good for about 45 minutes, then we hear,

"MY HAND IS STUCK!!!"
We are already trying to suppress the giggles when we look at eachother. "What you said?" - we're both thinking. We try to ignore.

"MY HAND IS STUCK!!!"
Curtis calls out, "OK - get it unstuck and go to sleep, sweetie."
"I CAN'T GET IT UNSTUCK. It's *REALLY* STUCK!!"

Curtis goes to investigate. I can hear bits and pieces over the monitor - mostly muffled because Curtis is trying not to crack up, and because the sound quality from the baby monitor is poor when I am rolling on the floor laughing hysterically (but quietly, mind you) peeing my pants.

I hear something like....

"It's stuck....can't. Sparkle's Hello Kitty panties....really stuck. OUCH! My hand hurts!" WTF?!

Turns out, she had her hand in the 'hanger loop' of her Sparkle pony's (the one we made with Anthony & Aunt Tracy at the Build a Bear place) Hello Kitty panties. Why do Hello Kitty panties for a horse have a hanger loop? Million dollar question, I guess. Anyway - she had twisted and twisted it until it was cutting off circulation in her wrist. Curtis actually had to stand her up to get it undone. He was laughing so hard when he came out. Hey - you gotta give the girl points for creativity. If she is going to lure us into her room, at least she used original material.

Anna and I have both had the stomach flu this week (or the "flu fly" as she calls it - her variation of "flu bug"). Yuck. But even feeling yucky, we've had a few laughs.

This morning, she asked me for eskimo kisses (OK), then butterfly kisses (OK). Then she said, "How do cows kiss?" Hmmmm....good question. So, we made up a cow kiss (which constitutes touching noses and then mooing at your kissing target at very close range) and later a bird kiss (kind of like an eskimo kiss, but you rub foreheads).

Just now, she called to me from her room (where she is supposed to be sleeping) "Is it time to get up from my nap yet?" When I said no, she yelled back, "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!"

Funny girl, this one.

Home again, home again. *sigh* We are so, unbelievably, incredibly, flippin' glad to be home again. Yikes. What a trip. We spent the last week in St. Louis visiting Curtis' 80 year old German grandmother (Oma) and his garndfather who just went into a nursing home this month. And, while we both absolutely love her to death...our stay was 6 1/2 days too long. When I have regained my sense of humor about the situation, I'll write more. If I were to write now, you'd all think horrible things of a lovely lady. Really, we've just run out of patience and amusement for the week. Right now we're both tired and mentally exhausted, (although very pleased with our little Angel who was an awesome traveler) - and we want sleep (in a bed that does NOT have a bar across our back, or that our feet hang of off, in the basement). It's SOOOO good to be home!!!