"Bubbles Bubbles Will You Help Us Pop"

Bubbles have the magical affect of preventing the girls from whining for the entire time we play with them.  We should probably get one of those bubble machines and just leave it on all day....ahhh....quiet.
 Until then...

Emmy's very hardcore about popping bubbles.  "Can you deal with that?!"

*15 points if you know that movie reference*

"Eating greens is a special treat..."

Rosa ate an entire head of kale tonight. 
That's it.  That's the post.  Do you really need more than that?

Conversations In My Head

(Real dialogue)
Me:  "Dusting the blinds is my least favorite household chore"
Drew: "Yeah".

(In my head...)
Yeah?  What does he mean by "yeah"?  Is that supposed to be a nod of sympathy regarding the suckyness of dusting the blinds...?  No.  That can't be right.
Is he insinuating by the "yeah" that he fully and completely understands and agrees that dusting the blinds is a painful task.  Oh, really?  I'm sorry, when was the last time you even held a duster?  Do you even know where I keep it?
 "Yeah", that's what I thought.

Blogging is cheaper than therapy.

Out of the Mouth of Emmy

"Mom, you need a new shirt.  You've worn that shirt for 20 years.
- said as I was putting on an apparently overworn Gap t.

"Rosey posey bunny nosey.  Good morning my little bunny rabbit".
 - her typical morning greeting to Rosa as she pokes her nose repeatedly.

"This is my baby's (Rosa) favorite dinosaur toy.  She's had it since she was five days a week."

E - "Can you please watch my baby while I go get a drink of water?"
Me- "Sure, I'll try to be careful with her".
E - "Yes please be cafeful because one time I had to take her to the hospital and they measured her feet".  ??
Me - "Where did your baby come from?"
E - "Umm...the grocery store."

Untainted Pride

"Hey Mom!  Come in here.  I want to show you something...I think you'll be impressed."
Emmy age 3 - calling me into the bathroom after she had finished number 2.

The Many Faces of Drew

As seen through Emmy's lens.

Just going to complain for a bit...kay?

Being at home with 2 sick girls when you are sick too is soooo unpleasant.  I think I'd rather have a root canal.  At least I would be blissfully under for a while, responsible for nothing other than perhaps not biting the dentist in my sleep.  And then, I can only assume hopped up on pain medications for a good while.  I am currently hopped up on Advil Cold and Sinus - which is not as fun.  I can only assume. 
We've actually all been sick for about 4-5 days now.  Drew's MLK day off included, which is a real bummer.  It's a travesty to have a day off of work and be sick.  I used to be pretty hardcore during colds, which I rarely got anyways.  I would motor right through a work day with a smile.  Since I've been home with the girls, I've become one of those super annoying whiny sick people who just wants to lay on the couch and moan.
*On a side note - when Emmy sneezed some nastiness out of her nose the other day her immediate response was "Wow, that was exciting".
So anyways, it's been one of those weeks.  Which leads me to New Year's Eve.  We have been celebrating NYE with London for the past several years because it's at 7pm, so the girls can be a part of the celebration.  This year I got a big bunch of balloons so that at "midnight" we could run outside and release them as we screamed "Happy New Year". 

Is Drew flashing a gang sign?  

 

 

I had such a lovely vision of balloons flying off into the night sky.  I told the girls the balloons would bring luck to whoever found them. So, just as we all scream out "Happy..." and release our balloons, a giant gust of wind comes and sweeps every last one of those suckers into the top of the pine tree at the side of our house, effectively popping every last one and scaring the bejesus out of a flock of birds.

Holding the remainder of our balloons.  And no I'm not dressed as a sad Merry Man.  I'm the only one who retained her party hat.

 

Now, I tried to convince myself that it was like rain on your wedding day.  Good luck, right?  The year shall be grand!
Since then, our stove has broken, I broke Drew's glasses, the new stove that we bought has to be returned and replaced as the door got dangerously hot, and all 4 of us are sick.  Now, I know that far worse things could have happened, but come on already universe CUT US A BREAK!
And now I'm moving on.

Oh and yeah, we did celebrate Christmas

I don't know if it's because I'm a novice blogger, or more likely because I'm me, that I get overwhelmed by the idea of posting about a significant event or holiday.  There's just too much involved.  Too many pictures, too many stories, really just too much to decide on, so I procrastinate it until it is almost irrelevant and then I can get by with some silly little montage of photos with meaningless little quotes that really say nothing about all the fun we had during said holiday or event.
 And because I am a traditional kind of girl, here you are...Christmas 2010 with the Lloyds on Ross.

We started with a little decorating...



Oh yeah, I got a case of the crafties.



Note to self - decorating with candy and kids = no decorations by Christmas.

 We got our traditional new ornament for the tree which Emmy was very excited to choose and hang.

 We got ourselves a little elf named Bootycakes (by Emmy of course) who kept a close watch on who was being naughty and who was being nice. 


Dear makers of Elf on the Shelf, you don't work on my child. There was no net increase in nice behavior.   Please make something scarier or more guilt inducing for next year.  Thanks.

 We excitedly bundled the kids up for an evening of Christmas in historic Montgomery...


Neither one of them got at all excited until they saw the free popcorn.  Santa shmanta.

We went to Grammy and Grampy's for Christmas Eve with Angie and Mike.

We opened A LOT of presents, cause that's how Grammy roles yo.

Subtle anticipation

   

  Rosa ran laps around the fab new hardwoods to work off all the baked goods...

Emmy made some deeeelicious microwaved grape soda.



365 days working hard for the nice list = totally worth it man.

 Christmas morning at our house started with Emmy creeping down the hallway to "check things out".  As soon as she saw a lit tree and presents she said "uh oh...I think Santa's been here"



Aww...Santa brought twinkie sleeping bags!

The aftermath.  Note the Starbucks on the table.  Closed on Christmas, well we'll just getcha the night before, fridge it and microwave in the a.m.  And a Merry Christmas we shall have. 

From our neighbor - how did she know?

We packed up and headed to Nashville for Christmas with the Lloyd gang.  Bunch of hooligans.
Pat made some yummy hunks and chunks...

"I'm strong to the finish..."

Tried to get a picture of the kids...

Now that's much better.

Pop and Boo got comfortable.

Rosa was especially smitten with Henry.  I briefly considered smuggling him home with us among the rest of our Christmas stash, but figured Matt and Danza might notice...and then that would be awkward.

Pop entertained Emmy at breakfast with a coin game.

All kinds of good times had by all! Thanks to all Family and Friends for filling our Christmas with so many wonderful moments and memories.  And I haven't even thought about describing New Year's yet.

Conversations With Emmy: The Spinny Chair Edition

So we have these retro green "spinny" chairs in the living room that we got for like twenty bucks at the flea market and we let the girls spin in them all the time.  Oh how they LOVE to spin in them!

Emmy:  Mom, come over here and spin me spin me spin me!!!
Me:  Hang on a sec, I'm in the middle of something.  (Dusting bookshelf)
Emmy:  You never listen to a word I say!  (hmm...wonder where she got that?)
Me:  I am listening, you want to spin.  Just let me finish one more thing.
Emmy:  Well stop doing THINGS and come over here and SPIN ME!!!

I stopped doing THINGS and started spinning Emmy -

Emmy:  Spin me fast, but not too fast or by brain juice will fall out and I'll never be able to walk again...that's what Dad told me.

Something About Her Teeth Makes Me Think She Has Dentures

I don't know why...

And I Trump You With A Bag Of Cheetos

This post is mainly for Danza (hi!), who just recently posted on her blog about feeling guilty for letting Harrison watch a little tv.  I say nonsense.  What's a little tv in the scheme of things?  We Mom's suffer from enough Mom-guilt for too many other things throughout our children's lives.  I think we should get a free pass on tv.  Now, I'm not saying I believe in parking your kids in front of the tv all day long, but when you've gotta vacuum the trail of toast crumbs circling around the dining room, Nick Jr. is the answer.  It's either that or have one fighting me for control of the vacuum and the other one trying to ride it.
I mean, how else would Emmy have learned to say "Vamonos Mami!" when I'm taking too long to get outside?  I took French.  Who would have taught her to "put our heads together and get involved" when she has a problem like the Fresh Beats?  I can't sing and dance when I problem solve.  And don't even get me started on the "tiny ugly germs" that she has learned "will make her sick!" if she doesn't wash her hands.  I just tell her to scrub, I don't take time to describe the millions of little sour faces living on her hand.  So, I say there should be no guilt in a little educational distraction when you've got to cook dinner, or clean the house, or just need a mental break.  I mean, how else am I going to be able to make these very important blog entries?  (Ha!  Just kidding, they're napping now...this time.)
So, on that note.  Thought I'd share a vaguely similar (if not far less artistic) picture I took not long ago.

I belive it to be sisterly bonding.  Where would Angie and I be without our shared knowledge of Johnny Bravo dance moves?  Sha na na na na na na na na, Sha na na na na!
Oh, and the Cheetos they're eating are organic.  That means they're healthy...right?

Auntie Angie's Chocolate Crinkles

So, Angie gave us some Chocolate Crinkle dough at Christmas so that we could make my favorite Christmas cookies of all time at home, in far less time.  All we had to do was roll the (very sticky) dough into balls and roll them in the powdered sugar and voila! cookies into the oven.  Perfectly simple for 2 little girls to participate in, non?  No. 
It all started out so well...

Emmy enjoyed dropping the balls into the powdered sugar PLOP! to see the little puff of white cloud.

She was NOT a fan of having sticky hands, and wanted to repeatedly wash them throughout the process.

Then Rosa decided to get a little more involved...

You can see where this is going, right?

Step 1 roll cookie dough, step 2 place right knee delicately in powdered sugar and roll it around.

Powdered sugar is really hard to clean off linoleum.  It's almost like glue once wet.  Our feet stuck to the floor for days.  Mainly because of this. 

They turned out quite tasty.  Mmm...warm crinkles.

Now if only I could find Rosa...

Whistle While You Work...

Emmy and Rosa both really love to help me "clean" these days.  Especially Emmy, though sometimes I question her motives.  This is what I typically find...

Happily singing "Scrub a dub dub, baby's in the tub..."