My little niche

A few days ago, lemon_says wondered why her kids went to the ER more than her friends' kids. It all balances out in a karmic scale. My kids barf when they get colds. Curse you, post-nasal drip!

Other kids just get the sniffly noses, red faces, etc..Not here!

I'm an expert at field-stripping a Britax in less than a minute. My kids know to stand in the entry of the house and take everything off while Mommy breathes shallowly. I have a bigger-than-average collection of rag bag towels just in case.

The last 10 days haven't been pretty, and Katie is only 2 days into this cold. (Amelia's on antibiotics for a double ear infection right now and the cold might be leaving someday...) I took her into the doctor today because she was starting to sound croupy and she was running a temperature. When the doctor looks at you and says, "Buckle in for a bad week," it makes Mama want to drink.

There is nothing cuter than a little girl spinning in a twirly dress saying "I am ballerina."

Instead of buying the girls yet more stuff,on Saturday, we all went to the Ringling Brother and Barnum & Bailey Circus for their birthday.  We had 11:00 AM tickets so we were out of the house by 9:15 in order to get on MARTA for the train ride down to Phipps Arena. We take public transit whenever possible, because the girls love it, and Tom and I hate to pay the ridiculous parking fees.  Amelia made friends on the train with an adorable boy named Caleb, and they played "Space Adventurers" on the way down.  

She was saddened when we did not have seats right next to his in this arena. Alas, life is cruel.  We cheered her up with a giant $7 box of popcorn and her own bottle of water. Seriously, this thing came up to Katie's shoulder. That didn't stop Katie from eating almost all of hers. :) 

The kids loved the circus. It was really "over the top" (this year's theme), and you can tell that they are competing with Cirque de Soleil.  They had some Cirque-influenced parts that were quite lovely. Oddly enough, they had a "Pump It Up" part where they played rave music and had acrobats wearing latex costumes that would have fit in at the Chamber 10 years ago. I was laughing and boogeying in my seat. :) 

They had all of the classic circus parts that Tom and I remembered and loved from our childhoods, such as dogs catching frisbees, tiger taming, horses, silly rude clowns, and so own.  It was wonderful to show the children the circus for the first time and see them be blown away, as well as to re-experience it as an adult.

Getting the kids out of the arena and back home on the train was tiring. I saw some unpleasantness which I detailed on Facebook. I contacted security when we got back to North Springs and they took care of it quickly. Luckily, neither kid saw it, and that's what matters.

Katie's sleeping in a bed now, instead of a crib.  Late last week, I took her shopping for a big girl blanket for her bed (which has been in her room for a few weeks).  She chose a Dora blanket, even though she's not a big fan of the show.  Ah, well!

She took to sleeping in her bed this weekend once we convinced her It Was Time.  Our big issue was removing the crib from her room.  There were angry tears, but I calmed her down once I pointed out that she had a lot more play area for all her toys.

While I'm glad to have both children sleeping in their beds, it is definitely a bittersweet milestone.  Since we are not looking to have more children, this is the end of an era.

Saturday, we joined a gaggle of LJ friends for the first annual LJ Meetup coordinated by the lovely mrs__smith  at Stone Mountain. It was an absolute hoot! We spent the afternoon lazing around under the trees while the children climbed trees, kicked around soccer balls, and ran themselves ragged.

Here's a picture of most of the womenfolk and children:  (It's impressive that lemon_says 's four-year old took it!)


Katie was off chasing a soccer ball or waving at a passing train or something. The men evaded being in the picture by taking various versions of this shot!

Every thirty minutes, the Stone Mountain train would come by to the delight of the children. Here's Amelia announcing it to all gathered:


Lemon-says's wheelchair was one of the most popular attractions of the day. We had to stop the children from giving each other rides down the hill. "No!  Do not push your sister/brother/friend down into traffic!"



I can't wait until the next one. :D

Katie's first haircut without tears, restraining, or beating someone else. It was almost pleasurable. It was the first time in a year where all of her hair was cut, not just her bangs. Maybe it's because she got to ride a faux four-wheeler while her hair was cut or the hair stylist was amazing with her, but we are going back to this joint again!

I didn't think about drinking, and Tom didn't think about taking up drinking once during this! Woohoo!

I'm sitting at the kitchen table, putting together a list of spices we need to order from Penzey's. (We're out of Bold Taco seasoning, which is pretty darned close to an emergency as far as Tom's concerned.)  

Amelia grabs a piece of paper and her box of crayons to make a grocery list, since she knows we are going to the grocery store later this morning. She starts listing all of the things we will need: "Orange juice, milk, doughnuts...No, Mommy doesn't let me get doughnuts, but Daddy does!  No pepper!  I don't like pepper. Pizza. I hope we can get pizza. (Fat chance, we ordered it last night when I had a migraine and Mommy wasn't up to cooking anything.) I can't wait to get a cookie at the bakery!" While all of this is going on, she's "writing" on her list.

As soon as Katie notices that Amelia and I are sitting at the table, she goes to the craft cabinet, grabs a piece of paper, and comes to join us. She then starts imitating Amelia imitating me.

It's mornings like this that I'm very glad I'm here.

The crayoning, day two: I followed up with a solid five minute scrub with a Target-brand Magic Eraser. The eraser dissolved, the crayon came up, and so did some of the paint. The wall will need some paint touch up, but it looks much better. I shudder to think of the fumes that have been released in that area in the last twenty-four hours, but such is the wrath of Katie. :)
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I just placed an order for a gDiapers starter system for Katie. There's a sale on Amazon, and Tom and I have seen friends use them. I've been wanting to use a more ecologically friendly diapering system for years, but we've had internal disagreements about cloth diapering. This is a very good compromise, and hopefully it will work out for us.  We can get refills locally at Whole Foods/Harry's which will be convenient until we potty train Katie, which will hopefully be sooner than later!
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Yesterday was my first day without a migraine in two weeks. I was afraid to tell anyone for fear I'd jinx myself. Here's hoping today will be a whole two days of no head pain!  *crosses fingers* 
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This weekend, I got to meet mnfiddledragon in person. She's absolutely lovely and brilliant. We fell right into talking like we knew each other "in real life" for years. If she lived here in the Atlanta area, she would so be part of our group. :) In other words, dibs on kidnapping her if she ever moves!

Amelia had her first swim lesson today. She did wonderfully, even though she had to suffer through the dreaded "water up the nose". Katie was thoroughly pissed that she could not splash and play, but the entire pool and kiddie area was cordoned off for swim lessons. (They run 6 different levels of swim lessons at the same time.)  We sat outside the fenced off pool area,  and I chatted with some of the other mothers while Katie threw a major hissy fit. She eventually calmed down and ate a snack.

When we got home, Amelia showed off a scrape on her knuckle from getting out of the pool. I put a Wiggles bandage on the scrape (I was surprised that she chose that over the Backyardigans and Hello Kitty, since Wiggles have been out of favor in our casa for years now. Ah, well!).  Katie came over and stuck out her hand to get a bandage. Since she had been denied the swim, I was just not up for another screaming hissy fit. The cost of a bandage is not that high.

Katie is now admiring her thoroughly unnecessary but awfully spiffy bandage.

She's strong, funny, and knows her own mind. I think that's fabulous. She challenges me, and I can't wait to meet the woman she'll become.

I love you, Katherine.