Leave of Absence

Yikes, it's been a long time since I posted! Well, like is just swimming on by, and we have had a crazy dead -of-summer-in-the-middle-of-March the past two weeks and the week before that I went to California and the week before that the grandparents were in town (Nonni did us a huge favor by hanging out to help with the girls while I was in San Francisco)...so not much energy for posting. Lemme back up a sec.

We have had a fab winter...a bit bleak as far as sunshine, but it has been in single digits just a handful of times. I'll take it. Then these past couple of weeks-AAAAHHH! I mean, it all started with a little thaw, but we have had temps in the 60s-80s the past couple of weeks, 8 of which were in the 80s. We haven't missed a beat pretending it's August, digging out the sandals, dresses, short sleeves, sun hats , and sunblock.

We even got to celebrate our first Baby Wranglers Happy Hour on St. Patrick's Day (this looks quiet, but there were about 30 people at the playground that night)!

Addie is so excited about the weather that she acts like this in music class. Oh, wait, she always acts like this in music class...(can I tell you how her teacher reminds me so much of my mother that I get super nostalgic every single class? She is wonderfully silly, completely down to earth and unpretentious, and isjust absolutely fabulous...just like my mom was)


It's a far cry from this February day, though it was great for it's own reasons.

But, let's remember we are usually struggling to get out of the 30s this time of year, so we're giving thanks. And lots of it.

So, where to begin....Well, Addie never stops talking. She started unlocking her mouth with an imaginary key to give herself bites recently (not sure what that's about), and will still be belligerent unless we pretend every bite is going to see someone in our circle of friends and family...oh, and we started giving her tokens for doing chores like brushing her teeth, making her bed, putting her pacifier away without being asked, and staying in her bed at night. And after a whole week of this, she feels pretty awesome to cash in her tokens for a $1 toy in the Target dollar bins. Wish I had been smart enough to limit Gillian's shopping radius to this area, but alas, she has discovered that there are much more awesome toys to be had in other parts of the store (I try not to let Addie know that part exists). I rue that Gillian's barbie switch will be turned on, since last week she told me: "I like barbies now. Just today." when I questioned her wanting a princess bride barbie by the fact that she has a giant Disney princess barbie house and several princesses and princes and rarely ever touches them (btw-she chose to save her token money until she can buy the princess bride barbie-the kid has willpower).

Gillian is also in love with braids and wants me to braid it wet every time. That way it's "wavy". She actually gets a lot of compliments-it's softer and sweeter looking than a crimping iron from 1982 (see her hair in the beach pic, above). Needless to say, I need to get on the french braid wagon ASAP (confession: I am pretty terrible at french braids), because Gillian is a GIRL'S GIRL. As bossy as she is, she seems to be pretty beloved...I just got her first playdate request from the dad of a BOY at school. Huh.

Addie told our baby sitter within Sean's earshot the other day that "I don't like to eat my dinner because it makes Mama MAD!" and dissolved into fits of evil laughter (for the record-I don't get MAD, I get exasperated and leave the room. We haven't taught her that word yet). This doesn't bode well for adolescence at all. She deliberately is disagreeable to get under our skin. It takes supreme effort not to be annoyed by her efforts to annoy me. In fact, I have never heard of such a young toddler being so completely aware of their own evil powers and their desire to maniplate and BREAK YOU. She had two blisters on her feet the other day and was freaking out when Sean tried to get her in the bathtub-crying and throwing a fit because she was worried the water would hurt the blisters. So she was striking "trying-to-get-a-cat-in-the-bathtub" poses of resistance with the limbs for after whining for a couple minutes about how it would hurt. Sean has less patience than I do about reasoning with her, so he just picked her up and unceremoniously lifted her up (which served to heighten the feigned terror of putting the boo boos in the water) and Sean said "Come ON, Addie, will you just get in the bathtub, please?!?" and you know what she said?? She said "Oh, o-KAY, Papa". Like she was 14 and completely irritated by the entire exchange, except she doesn't know she's supposed to roll her eyes when she says that. And then she cackled like a little monster who loved making lots of trouble. Amazing. And-she loves to tell people this story.

It's ok with me if the warmth hangs around a while.