Farewell, Princesses

Last year, Isabelle politely asked me to remove Dora, Backyardigans and a few other favorite cartoons from our DVR so she could upgrade to the "big kid" cartoons. It was a sad day for me, realizing that my little one was growing up so fast.

With a treasure trove of dress-up costumes in her room, we haven't had to purchase a Halloween costume for her yet. This is the first year she wanted to go to the store and pick a new one out. All of her dress-ups, apparently, were for little kids and she was "done" being a Princess, at least for Halloween.

To avoid the mayhem of the store, knowing she wouldn't be able to decide, I let her shop online first. We still went to the store to buy the final choice but we did our deciding before we got there.

This year's masterpiece was a pink Supergirl costume, which was pretty darn cool if I must admit it. She wanted to be Batgirl but the store didn't have it in stock yet by the time we got there so she opted for the Supergirl one instead. They were essentially the same costume (boots, mask, glovelets, a cape) but the insignia was just Supergirl instead of Batgirl.

My little Supergirl looked awesome and had a fun day with a storybook parade where she dressed up as Fancy Nancy, a Halloween party at school, and trick-or-treating with friends.

Overheard in the WWOI

Isabelle was reading a book to me the other day. In the story, the girl character wanted to wear her hair in pigtails for school.

Izzi got to the word and stopped. She started to sound it out. It's not a hard compound word for her, so she got the pig and the tails but she still hesitated to move on. She looked at the picture, then back at the words. She finally finished the sentence out loud but then she stopped.

Izzi: Mommy? What in the world are PIG tails?

Me: You know what pigtails are, baby. We put pigtails in your hair for every soccer game, it's when you have two ponytails instead of one and there is one on each side of your head.

Izzi: So when I play soccer, you put PIG tails in my hair?

Me: Yup! Why? What's wrong?

Izzi: Oh...nothing. I just always thought they were called PINK tails.

Me: I think I like pinktails better.

Izzi: Me too, I think I'll always call them that. 

Pinktails and marshpillows, that's what little girls are made of :)

Stuck in a Rut

We are 7 days into Kindergarten now. It's Thursday of week 2 and the Silers are getting this routine thing down!

Last year, day care started at 9am. And since I work from home, I was used to rolling out of bed at 8:15am, throwing Izzi some cereal and a banana, and driving her over to daycare in my pajamas (I sleep in comfy clothes, so they don't really LOOK like pajamas...uhhhh…or do they?) OK, maybe I wasn’t fooling anyone, but I digress.

So this year, Iz needs to arrive between 7:30am and 7:50am. That’s more than an hour earlier than last year! I knew we’d have a challenge with this considering us girls were typically late to 9am daycare last year. But THIS year was different. Anything after 7:50am results in a tardy slip. Which goes on her record. Which really reflects poorly on ME, not the kid. So this just wasn’t acceptable. I just assumed my poor child would be getting a LOT of those, but I've turned a new leaf. And on day 7, we are organized, on task, and getting it done. On Time!

I think Isabelle got my unfortunate trait of NOT being a morning person. I hate mornings. I'm tired, cranky, discombobulated, and need some time to wake up slowly. With our new schedule, we don't have time for that. And since I recently gave up coffee completely (!!!), I have no morning java to pick me up. I have to do it all by myself (with a little help, just the natural kind now).

So to keep us on task without any arguments, we created a new morning and evening routine, with times assigned to each task. (I get the morning routine, Ed takes care of the evening). We have all agreed to this schedule and therefore, it keeps arguments to a minimum. I run this morning routine military style, and there are no excuses for being late.

The Morning Routine poster was my creation
but don't knock the artwork. It's not my thing.

Here is a morning in the life of Jen and Izzi Siler:

6:00 AM Alarms Sound! We are allowed 15 minutes of hitting the snooze button, because, that’s just how we roll. I try to use this 15 minutes to do my Carl Sandburg stretches that were introduced to me in the Engine 2 Diet book. They really wake your muscles up and get your mind out of that morning fog. At 6:15, I’m usually going in to Izzi’s room with a gentle nudge that snooze time is over (which typically entails a 2 minute snuggle and some tickle bugs to get things moving).

6:15 – 6:45 AM Breakfast. Izzi is a slow eater in the morning, and she’s typically still in a bit of the fog too. So I knew I had to allow the most time in our schedule for eating breakfast (most important meal of the day, remember!). Her standard fare is some healthy cereal and a banana. Sometimes we vary from this with some whole grain pancakes/waffles, muffins, or some other treat. A banana is 99% of the time required (by her, not me) or it’s not considered a complete breakfast. My little monkey…

I make myself a morning smoothie packed with tons of good stuff (frozen organic berries, amazing grass green powder, banana, coconut oil, ground flaxseed, chia seeds, fish oil, you get the idea) while I check emails and get a few things done for work, and we talk about the day ahead.

At 6:45 sharp, all breakfast gets taken away. Izzi has come to understand and respect this about the morning schedule. She gets 30 minutes for breakfast (less if she’s running late getting out of bed) and at 6:45am, breakfast is over. She doesn’t even complain, or try to negotiate. It just “is what it is”.

After breakfast, we brush our teeth next. We found it’s best to do this step right after eating whilst still in our pajamas so when the inevitable toothpaste drool-spit combo gets on our shirt, it just hits our dirty PJ shirt and not our fresh clean shirt we are wearing to school that day.

We allot 15 whole minutes for tooth brushing. Her little Sonicare only takes 2 minutes, but there are so many songs and imaginary friends that also have to brush teeth, that reality requires 15 minutes.

At 7:00am, I better see her cute little butt in her room putting on her clothes. Meanwhile, the outfit has already been chosen (by her) and laid out the night before with everything she needs including undies, socks, and shoes. She only gets 15 minutes to get dressed, which I realize is NOT a lot for a 5-6 year old, but we usually have a few minutes of buffer this late in the morning from the other stages getting done quickly.

At 7:15am, it’s time to brush the mop. This step might warrant more time, actually. I threaten to chop her hair off almost daily (even though I swore I never would since I was threatened similarly as a kid and hated it). But I swear the kid must eat cotton candy on the side when I’m not looking and then rub her hands in her hair. Every day, she comes home with some kind of sticky, gooey, yuck in her hair and it’s a disaster to brush every morning (quick confession, NO my kid does not get a bath and shampoo every day. You can hand over my Mom-of-the-Year Award any time now.).

As soon as that fiasco is over, we leave the house (because, again, everything is ready and waiting by the door b/c it was packed the night before). I throw her ice pack in her lunch and we’re off.

Most days we walk or ride our bike to school. We live one mile from the school and honestly, walking takes less time than driving because of the traffic of cars, walkers, and bikers. I walk her into her classroom and get her settled (we’re allowed to do this for the first 9 weeks of school) and then I’m off to the gym for an 8:30 class.

Despite my grumblings of the early mornings, and passing out at 9:30pm every night, this new schedule has me feeling quite invigorated. I’m getting 2 hours of physical activity in the morning (granted the walk/bike to school/gym/home isn’t a high-intensity workout but it beats sitting in a car), I’m getting to the gym before work starts, and Izzi is enjoying a fruitful first few weeks of Kindergarten.

Everyone knows where they need to be, at what time, and how long they have to do each step of their morning routine. Now, if we could just work on that evening one!

The Evening Routine artwork belongs to Isabelle.
I actually think hers is much better than mine!

So, us Silers are stuck in a rut! But it's a very good thing...

Kindergarten!

Izzi's first day of Kindergarten was today. I didn't think this whole Kindergarten thing was going to affect me that much. I mean, the kid's been in daycare since she was 3 months old. And, she's been in 5 different daycare places over those 5 years so she is used to having to start out at a new place.

So it surprised me this week when I found myself really quite emotional. And I know it's not because she's "leaving" us, it's because she's growing up so very fast. Too fast for my liking. This is the first day of REAL school. That preschool stuff is for amateurs. We now have daily take-home folders, homework, calendars with tons of events, a PTA and administration to navigate, and so many other surprises yet to be uncovered.

Last Friday, we got 2 letters in the mail from school. Both were from Izzi's new teacher, Mrs. Uzzillia. One was written to her, the other to me and Ed. And that's the culprit that caused my first breakdown. I sniffled and weeped into a balled up fist of tissues like I'd sprung a leak. Then I pulled myself together, kicked myself for being soft, and proceeded to have yet another great family weekend full of fun, friends, and sunshine.

Monday was the open house, for an hour during lunch. Mrs. Uzzillia put us parents to work! We had an 18-point checklist we had to accomplish within 30 minutes in her classroom which included filling out forms, navigating the classroom, unpacking our school supplies, and reading some lists she had placed around the room. One of the last items on our checklist was to take the postcard that was provided in one of three folders she handed us, and write a first-day-of-school note to our child. Mrs. Uzzillia was going to read them all out loud on the first day (Tuesday) to the class. Well, I didn't get past "Dear Izzi" when Ed was plying me with a well-stocked hand full of tissues once again. I then proceeded to sniffle the entire 30 minutes the poor teacher was talking to us all, because of that damned note.

So that brings us to Tuesday. The first day of school. The day I was now dreading because of all this crazy crying I'd been doing all week. But today was different. Today, I knew she was nervous so I knew I had to hold my stuff together until I got out of there so she didn't see it.

But the whole walk to school, she was skipping down the sidewalk (clearly not nervous). And she marched right into class and took over. She remembered where her lunchbox went, where her backpack get stored in her cubby, where her desk was with her name proudly displayed. She sat down with a smile and looked in her new pencil box with all her supplies (I used to love school supplies when I was a kid). There was a piece of paper on her desk asking her to draw a picture of herself on the first day of Kindergarten. She immediately got to work, and paused for a moment and said, "Mommy? I'm not nervous at all anymore!". Which of course, made me bawl my eyes out. 

I was good, though, I did wait until later so she didn't see me. But, I'm still crying about it now as I type this.

My big, brave, girl. You amaze me every day. You are SO gonna rock this Kindergarten thang.

Overheard in the WWOI

Getting Izzi out of the shower tonight, I was towel drying her hair and she ripped one right on my leg.

Isabelle! What do you say?

In a fit of giggles she begged pardon and then added, "well YOU'RE the one who told me to bend over."

Overheard in the WWOI

We were watching the cooking channel the other day and they were in Manhattan and the narrator dude mentioned the nickname "the city that never sleeps".

Isabelle got wide-eyed and shouted, "The CITY that never SLEEPS????? Oh I'm totally moving THERE when I'm an adult. Then I NEVER have to go to bed AGAIN!!!"

Overheard in the WWOI

We were in a restaurant just recently (gee, go figure) and Isabelle had to go potty. She and I are walking across the restaurant and she is grabbing and pulling at her crotch. So I leaned over and whispered, “Hey, stop grabbing yourself, it's not lady like in public.”

To which, Isabelle replied, at a normal voice level, “Mommy, I’m not grabbing my bagina because I have to go potty. I'm  just grabbing it because I'm sweaty and my underpants are STICKING to my bagina!”

Ohhhhh, well in that case, carry on girlfriend!

Amen, sister!

Izzi asked Mom Mom SuSu today...

"Why do prayers always end with Amen? Why don't they ever end with Agirl?"

Isabelle and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Poor Isabelle started a summer camp today at the YMCA. It looked like a super fun aquatic camp called Fins and Snorkels.

The day started on a sour note when we realized as we pulled into the parking lot  that mommy forgot to pack her a towel. Thankfully mom-mom lives right across the street from the Y so she came to the rescue with a towel. 

As we walked across the parking lot, Iz excitedly skipped and sang and SPLAT fell down on all fours and skidded to a stop. Bloodied knees and hands galore.

Then once we got her cleaned up and bandaged, she was just ruined after that. She got weepy, clung onto me, and tugged my heartstrings with a vice grip.

I promised to stay with her until they got into the pool. Because of the chaos of the first day, the kids didn't get into the pool until 10am. She seemed to be OK by then and even blew me a kiss goodbye. 

I guess she wasn't OK though because when I picked her up the counselor told me she cried all day. I wasn't too keen on the chaos of the morning and the very young age of the counselors. I don't like my kid in a pool if I'm not there to supervise. Yes, I'm over protective so shoot me. And because of that, Izzi is a summer camp dropout. 

The Graduate

Thursday June 6th was the Kids R Kids Pre-K Graduation ceremony. Yes, I said ceremony. A two hour ceremony! To say it was "over the top" is a bit of an understatement. 

It was very cute but with four pre-k classes, things took a while. There were 8 songs sung by the kids, a slide show while they got dressed in their caps and gowns, and they called each kid up by name. Izzi had a blast and she surprised us with the job of flag holder for the pledge of allegiance at the start of the event. 

Me being the spaz that I am forgot my camera...ugh! I am hoping some friends pull through with some and will post later if they do.

We are proud parents of our little purple polyblend potato sack. Congrats, baby girl. This is just one of many big accomplishments you will have in this crazy thing called life. 

Adios, Amigos!

All of our friends in Doraland have left the building. Dora, Diego, Boots, Isa, Benny, even Swiper will kind of be missed around here. Isabelle told us this weekend that we could stop recording a few of her cartoons, because they were for babies, and she's a big girl now. Shows now on the cutting room floor include:

• Dora the Explorer
• Backyardigans
• Max and Ruby (good riddance!)
• Little Mermaid (this one surprised me)

I have been silently sabotaging the Max and Ruby recordings for a few weeks now. I am not afraid to say out loud that I absolutely, positively abhor Ruby. She is the most nagging, annoying big sister any poor boy on this planet could ever be cursed with. The sabotage came back to bite me though, because Iz just re-watched the same 3 episodes ad-nauseum. So, needless to say, I was very happy when she announced that this troubled twosome was off her radar for good.

The Little Mermaid I was actually surprised about. She hasn't quite left the Princess stage just yet, but I have a feeling it's going to be long gone by the time Kindergarten starts. Any girl classmate with an older sibling will surely have kicked the Princesses out of her life by the time the first day of school rolls around.

I was a little nostalgic about letting Dora and Backyardigans go. Dora can certainly be grating at times but she has been in our lives for so long now, I do think I'll kind of miss her. And as for those musically-gifted critters on Backyardigans, I really actually LIKE that show. It's one I could sit down for 22 minutes and tolerate watching with Iz. They went on great adventures, they learned about places far and wide, they sang pretty snazzy tunes (some of which we have downloaded on our iPod), and they had relatively healthy snacks. I saw first hand how that show fostered creativity in Isabelle long after the boob tube was turned off. She would go on her own adventures and sing quietly about her experiences.

Isabelle graduates from Pre-K on Thursday. I can't believe we start the big K in just a few short summery weeks. She's so excited, and I am too, if not a bit sad for this rite of passage that both of us are about to share.

So, Dora, Diego, Boots, Isa, Benny, Swiper, Pablo, Uniqua, Tasha, Tyrone, and Austin. Adios, Amigos.

Max and Ruby? Don't let the door hit you on the.....

How Much Is That Dolly in the Window?

Isabelle spent the night with Mom-Mom SuSu last Saturday night so us crazy kids could go enjoy a nice restaurant and night at the beach. We had a yard sale earlier that day and made some mad cash so we decided to use it for fun money.

Iz had sold some of her toys (quite reluctantly). On Sunday, Mom-Mom planned on taking Iz to church and then to a huge flea market afterwards. So after the yard sale, we let Izzi have the $11 she made selling her toys and told her she could buy ANYTHING she wanted at the flea market on Sunday as long as it didn't breathe or make noise.

So at the flea market, they were walking around and Iz spotted a baby doll from across the room and their eyes locked and it was instant lifelong love. She had found exactly what she was going to spend those $11 hard-earned bucks on.

There was a man and woman manning this particular kiosk. Izzi picked up the doll, with stars in her eyes and told the man, "I want HER!". And she opened her purse and proudly handed over all $11. The guy apologized and explained that the doll came with 10 outfits and they were asking $40 for everything. So Mom-Mom jumped in and tried to haggle a little, can we get the doll only without the clothes for $11? No, sorry, the guy said his wife would kill him if he let it go for that little. So now Iz was pissed, and turned on the charm for Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop, thinking for sure they would dig into their pockets and make up the difference. And Mom-Mom SURE did want to, but we had already chatted ahead of time and she knew that there was a teachable moment here. Izzi had $11 to spend, and you don't just ask for more money when you want something, you have to live within your means. Mom-Mom explained that maybe if she was a good girl, that she might get this doll for a special occasion like her upcoming Pre-K Graduation, or her big first day of Kindergarten, or birthday or something. Izzi was very sad but she didn't argue. She accepted her fate like a big girl and put the doll back on the shelf.

The woman was finishing up with another customer and came over to see what was going on with this little girl and her family. As soon as the woman asked what was going on, Isabelle lost her marbles and cried that she really wanted that doll but she only had $11 and HE wouldn't let her HAVE IT and she doesn't have any more money than that. Well, the waterworks did the trick, and the lady let Isabelle have the doll and 10 outfits for only $11.

So you think that would be the end of the story but it gets better because when they got home, Mom-Mom wanted to clean the gently-used doll up a bit and clean the clothes. She looked for a tag and found one. She got online to Google it to find out if there were special instructions or something. As it turns out, Isabelle just wrangled herself a new-to-her gently-used American Girl doll (which retail for over $100 without the outfits and accessories) for 11 bucks. Needless to say, I'm taking her with me every time I go to the flea market now.

Cindy

Izzi's new-to-her American Girl doll "Callie" hanging
out with 40-year-old armless wonder "Cindy"

And then there was Cindy, circa 1973. She has little hair left b/c I dragged her around by her hair wherever I went, as soon as I started to move. By the time enough hair fell out and I couldn't grasp on any longer, I proceeded to drag her around by her arm...which eventually fell off.

Isabelle has asked me repeated questions about her every detail. Why does she have no hair? What happened to her arm? Why didn't you sew it back on? Why is she so dirty? Where are her clothes? What is this hard round thing ripping through the fabric on her back? (It's the old sound box that made her crying noises).

Cindy doesn't cry anymore. But I still cry at night when I have nightmares that she's going to come into my room and murder me in my sleep. Cindy takes bookings for horror movie roles, please send me a private message.

Wicked Awesome

Today, we wake up (yet again) in a world that doesn't make sense. A world where some cowardly insane person (or group) decided to hurt many innocent individuals by detonating two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Bombs that killed eight-year-old Richard, twenty-nine year old Krystle, and a graduate student from Boston University whose name is yet to be released. Hundreds of people were treated in local hospitals with many still in critical condition.

Since I went to Boston College, and lived in the city for a year after graduation, I can assure you that Patriot Day/Marathon Monday is one of the best celebrations in the USA. Patriots Day is officially April 19th and it's a holiday only honored in Boston. It's officially celebrated on the third Monday in April. The Boston Marathon has been ceremoniously held on that day since 1969. And the Boston Red Sox have a home game at Fenway on Patriots Day.

To say it's a fun day to be in Beantown is an understatement. Businesses are closed. Schools are closed. Almost every place that doesn't serve food and drink is closed in honor of a day where visitors and locals come together to celebrate the human spirit.

The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon. Considering our nubile country is just a mere 237 years old, that's a pretty amazing statistic. 

Boston College is located at miles 20-21 of the 26.2 mile course. It's lovingly and brutally referred to as "Heartbreak Hill" due to its slow steady incline and that it’s located at one of the hardest segments of any marathon when runners tend to hit that proverbial wall. This may be why I have such fond memories of going out to “Comm Ave” to cheer on the tens of thousands of runners as they crippled by. B.C. students felt some semblance of responsibility to instill in these inspirational runners the need to keep going, to fight through the pain, to make it to that finish line.

I remember the runners who would put their name on their shirt. Genius! We would scream their name as loud as we could. Go Ben! You can do it, Ben! Let's go, Kathy! You're DOING it, Kathy! Keep it up! Congratulations, Sarah! Look at YOU GO! You're awesome, Jack!

Then there were those who ran with a group, or with a school, or put their favorite sports team on their shirt. Let's go, Diamondbacks! Yea, Boston College Eagles! Oh, too bad you are a Steelers fan but you're still doing a good job! It didn’t matter where you were from, what your name was, or which team you rooted for. The masses were united on Marathon Monday.

Marathon Monday is such a fun, beautiful celebration that made me proud to be a Bostonian, even if it was only for a few short years. I left my heart there in 1996 when I had to move home for many reasons beyond the scope of this blog post. I always planned to move back, but alas, life took me in a very different direction which is par for the course.

I'll never be able to root for the Red Sox or the Patriots (what is WITH those teams anyway?!?!?) as they continue to plague my beloved Orioles and Ravens. But my heart bleeds for Boston today. I'm heartbroken to know that Marathon Monday and Patriots Day is forever tainted in history. We'll never be able to find beautiful pictures of Marathon Monday online again because of the thousands of photos and videos of this particular day. The 117th Annual Boston Marathon is forever stamped in our minds as one of those lifetime events that everyone will remember where they were when they heard the horrific news.

My memories will serve as peace as I remember crisp Spring afternoons with blue skies, good friends, food and frosty beverages, and tens of thousands inspirational people from across the globe who were running for their lives...in a good way.

Boston, you are wicked awesome. God bless you. And God please help the many families directly affected by this senseless act.

Oriole Magic

We took Isabelle to her first Spring Training Orioles game today. Even Uncle Don has never been to a Spring Training game before. Ed & I saw the O's play at the Yankees facility many years ago but this was our first trip to the Orioles facility which is actually a new stadium in Sarasota called the Ed Smith Stadium.

It's a really small venue (most of the Spring Training facilities are) so there isn't a bad seat in the house. Unless you get the sunny side of the stadium on a cloudless day. Then you might be a bit uncomfortable. The concessions leave a little to be desired but everything else was just fantastic. The crew were awesome, bathrooms clean, whole stadium was clean, plenty of cool table seating and patio areas to hang out if you can't sit in your seat baking in the sun for hours.

If you ever end up going, be sure to bring a glove and you really must pay attention to the game. Every seat is prone to having a foul ball tipped it's direction so you have to be careful.

A women near us got hit by a foul ball in the 3rd inning today. The guy behind us looked up to see how bad it was. He sighed, turned back in his seat and said, "Eh, she's a Yankees fan. Totally deserved that.". Now I would NEVER say such a thing, Isabelle. But I did have to chuckle. She wasn't hurt THAT bad. And I think she really was over dramatizing the situation.

Anyway, we had a great day at the park. We're hoping to take Grandpa there next month when he comes to visit if Mother Nature plays nice.

Falling Asleep

Isabelle started crying suddenly in the car the other day. It was an urgent REAL cry, the kind a mom knows is fo'real. So I pulled the car over ready for action. I got out of the car and opened her door pleading her to explain the problem. Through tears and wide eyed fear, she said her leg felt funny. A few more questions asking her to show me where it hurt, she said her leg had dots all over it. LOL. I knew then we had a little leg that fell asleep. Probably for life now, the Silers will say they have dots instead of having body parts fall asleep.

Overheard in the WWOI

"You are allowed to say the word dam as long as you're talking about beavers." (we were running through some flashcards)

Toothless in Tampa

Iz came home from school on Monday, January 14th and non-chalantly told me she had a loose tooth. I didn't believe her and thought she was making up another one of her stories. Surely, some OTHER kid in her class had a loose tooth so she was imagining hers was too by way of envy.

A short while after we got home, I noticed her with her hands in her mouth. I asked her what she was doing...playing with my loose tooth, of course! So I checked it out myself. And son of a gun if she wasn't being serious! One of those cutie patootie teeth in the front bottom of her smile was hanging by a thread!!! She JUST turned five, so I told her it was way too early!

Then she got scared. Why is it too early? What's going to happen to me?

I laughed, and then cried a little. I assured her, she was going to be JUST fine. It wasn't too early for Isabelle to loose a tooth. It was just too early for her Mommy to handle it. I thought I had another year or so.

So when Daddy came home from work, he checked it out and asked if she wanted it out. She was SO EXCITED that Daddy could make that happen. So he grabbed a towel and did just a few wiggly-twists and out it came. She was a little freaked when she saw the blood but was quickly too overjoyed at the little tiny tooth sitting in his hand that she forgot about the red stuff.

I wasn't expecting her to be so excited about it. She was the first kid in her class to lose a tooth, so maybe that was it? Then a few minutes later she asked, in totally serious mode...."so this means I get to go to Kindergarten tomorrow, right?".

She had been asking about losing her teeth a lot lately, wondering when it was going to start happening. I told her probably around Kindergarten. So she figured since she lost one so early, this was her golden ticket to the big K. I felt bad seeing the deflated look on her face when I explained that wasn't how it worked and she still had to wait until next year.

She got over it pretty quick after finally being able to check out her new toothless smile in the mirror after the red stuff subsided.

Just two days later, she lost her second front bottom tooth. AND she has her new adult horse tooth already halfway in. I guess this catapults us into "the awkward years".

PS: Out of laziness, I'm not going back to proofread and make sure I got all my "loose" and "lose" usages correct. I know the difference, but I have more posts to make and little time LOL.

Miss Manners

We're trying to raise Isabelle with manners (Lord, give me strength!). Thankfully, we do often get compliments on her politeness (pat my own back here).

When me and the brothers were raised, we learned very strict and proper table manners. Our mother had been brought up even stricter (down to the appropriate attire one wore to Supper). We didn't have a dress code in our house but we did learn table manners. Some of the top ones, in no specific order:

1. Chew with your mouth closed.
2. No talking with food in your mouth (which seemed redundant based on rule #1).
3. Napkins in laps.
4. No elbows on the table.
5. Never reach for an item, ask for it to be passed...PLEASE!
6. When using a knife, cut one bite at a time. Rest your knife and put your fork back into your dominant hand to take a proper bite. Repeat.
7. How to set a proper table and how to rest your utensils.
8. Asking to be excused (and usually being denied until the family was done).
9. Push your chair in when you leave a table.
10. No singing at the table.

Most nights, we can barely get all 3 of us seated at a table at the same time. But we do really attempt the family dinner concept at least 3-4 nights per week. Ed and Isabelle both had a two-week winter break (while I worked through both holidays, but I digress). So we've had a lot of table time lately. This week, Ed and I broke out the "no singing at the table" rule.

Isabelle asked why?

I had no idea what to tell her, I just told her that was one of the rules that my Mom and Dad taught me. But she didn't buy it, so she said since Ed & I couldn't give her an answer, she would ask God. Right there in the car, she closed her eyes, clasped her hands in prayer, and tilted her head up to the sky to ask God a very serious question -- God, why am I not allowed to sing at the table?

After a few seconds of silence, she very righteously said -- God said he doesn't know WHO made that rule and that we can sing at the table if we want.

So, of course, when Isabelle turns to God, I turn to Google. It seems to be a rule that goes along with any and all mouth noises being frowned upon (burping, slurping, bubbling, singing, squealing, humming, etc.) because it interrupts polite conversation. But if God says we can sing at the table, I trust him more than Miss Manners any day. Sorry, Mom.

2013 Howdy

Reflecting on 2012, it was quite a busy year for the Silers.

January - Had high hopes yet another year watching the Ravens in the playoffs. Alas, it wasn't meant to be and we were eliminated after a particularly horrible kick by Billy Cundiff.

February - We sold our house (while we were visiting Florida, ironically enough).

March - Pack, pack, pack! Finally met Megan M. Egan!


April - Said many tearful goodbyes and hopped the Auto Train on the 23rd.

May - Lived with Mom-Mom SuSu & PopPop Bill while house hunting and exploring our new town.

June - Continued house hunting, exploring, beaching.

July - Found the house! Moved in July 20th, the same day we had to say goodbye to Great Mom-Mom Isabelle.

August - Unpacking and turning the new house into our new home.

September - Had our first visitors when Jeff, Jaime, Utaw, and Kora cook came to Florida. Then we traveled home to Maryland for a long visit, saw lots of people but didn't get to see everyone. Isabelle started her first Ballet/Tap combo class and loves it! She is signed up for the Spring session already which starts next week.

October - Fun Fall Festivals around town. Jen took a boot camp. Izzi got to wear four different Halloween costumes because of all the festivities (cowgirl, superwoman, punk rocker, snow white).

November - Izzi turned FIVE! And we had our regularly scheduled Puerto Rico vacation. This year we got to go for a hike in El Yunque Rainforest and we also went zip lining! Izzi was too young this time but in a few years!

December - We bought a ridiculously HUGE tree (11 feet!!!) just because we could. We've always had such a small house with low ceilings so we had to stick with small trees all these years. This year we went BIG and BOLD and it was beautfiul. We had a very Merry and relaxed Christmas this year, despite the horrific news in Newtown, Connecticut. It made us hyper-aware of our abundant blessings.

We had a very blessed 2012 with many good fortunes and happy memories. One can only hope for the same in 2013 -- Health, happiness, and hope to all for a very happy new year.