Those Perfectly Ordinary Days

I saw a video a few years ago called "The Gift of an Ordinary Day" by Katrina Kenison. It made me cry because of it's absolute truth. We photograph things. We record video. We document on Facebook and other social media outlets. But most of us forget to stop and recognize the precise perfection of those ordinary days and moments.

Every year around Mother's Day, I remember this video. And with the power of the internet, I get to re-watch it every year. It still makes me cry. And I still post it to my Facebook account to share it with my mama friends. There isn't a mother in the world who can't appreciate the message of appreciating those ordinary days.

I try to capture you in a camera in so many moments, Izzi. But my most favorite memories are the times when we are just being our snuggly selves, or our most silly beings. Those are the snippets of time when I can't grab a camera because there isn't one nearby, and I don't even care. I have these memories in my head, but I wish we could have a life-long videographer standing by, just so we could re-live it one day together (like we do with your baby videos, because those are FUN!)

I won't forget the early morning snuggles before school. Or the "just because" kisses and hugs I get from you when I'm least expecting them. Or the surprise post-it notes on my bathroom mirror telling me I'm the *M*A*M*E* (Most Awesome Mom Ever).

I'll also remember the look on your face when you are 'forced' to eat asparagus (or broccoli or peas or some other green thing that you "HATE") and realize that it's not so bad, when we sit down every night for our family dinner. And you know that it's healthy and that you SHOULD eat it, so you just get over your bad self and do it.

Mommy loves you so much, Bean. And you still call me Mommy at 8 years old, which is a miracle. I know you refer to me as your "Mom" with your friends, but you still call me Mommy when it's just you and I. It's a fleeting moment in time, I know. And I know your friends are using "Mom" with their own mothers. And I also know you still call me "Mommy" because you understand it makes me happy. And for that, you are an amazing daughter who is way too mature for her age.

I love you, bean sprout, baby cakes, little bean, Izzi-licious. (I'm just making stuff up here, we don't really call you most of these things.)

LOVE, Mommy, xoxo

Halloween VII

I'm so glad I bought that Elsa dress a few weeks ago, planning ahead for Halloween. So proud of myself. But no! What does Isabelle want to be for Halloween? Charlotte. As in Charlotte's Web.

I melt over the fact that she LOVED our experience reading the book together. But she doesn't understand that Charlotte is a character from a book published in 1952 which was turned into a cartoon character in 1973. Nobody wants to be Charlotte in 2014! Rightly so, there are no spider costumes for 6 year olds right now.

So, this year, we are reverting to the time of the olden days, when I was a kid. It's the homemade costume year. Probably her last. But, as I'm not a crafty gal, I've recruited Mom-Mom SuSu (Susan DiSabatino) to help us out (aka, do all the work) so that Isabelle can be the most beautiful spider creeping and crawling her way around our neighborhood next month.

Even when I asked her to change her mind because I was so afraid of spiders, she sweetly said, "but Mommy, Charlotte was the best friend that anyone could ever ask for, and I want to be that kind of best friend all the time."

Charlotte? You win, girl.

Back to School Milestones

Last year, when Izzi started Kindergarten, it was a year of firsts. Every single thing seemed new and exciting. On the first day of First Grade this year, I thought I might be more emotional but I was more excited this year than anything else. This was BIG girl school, not a practice run for what's to come.

During orientation with the new teacher, she explained that the first week of school, we were welcome to walk the kids into the classroom to help them get acclimated but by week 2, we were strongly urged to let our kids walk into the classroom on their own. Of course, some parents probably haven't been able to let that happen yet but we were already at this place last year so it didn't take Iz long to acclimate this year. In fact, she wouldn't even LET us come into the classroom on the first day. She kindly blocked me with her hand when I went to follow behind her into the classroom. She told me, "No, Mommy, I can do it."

A week later and I wanted to fast-track the drop-off process to get to the place we were at the end of last year. I would walk her into the school building but let her walk the long halls to her classroom on her own. It pained me to watch her turn the corner where I couldn't see her any longer, but I slowly adjusted, even if she was adjusting leaps and bounds ahead of schedule.

We started just our second week of First Grade yesterday. I drove her to school and only walked her inside the school walls and let her meander to class on her own. She did great. I did too. Only one lonely tear slid down my cheek but thankfully I had my big sunglasses that day so nary a person probably noticed.

Today, we took it a step further and we did the car drop-off line for the first time. This is where you pull up into a special drop-off car lane and some 5th grader opens the door for your kid, helps them out with their bookbag, and closes the door for them making sure they make it to the sidewalk safely which will usher them into their institute of learning.

I had to plan this just right because when I typically walk her in, we linger for a few moments and give a few extra hugs, some "kissing hands" (if you haven't read the joyous book "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn, it's a must for any parent and child who is starting school for the first time. In the car drop-off line though, there is no lingering allowed. They are militant in their expediency to keep the line moving. And I get that, but I'm not giving up my kissing hands just yet. So we have a system already in place. As soon as I turn into the parking lot, she is allowed to take off her seat belt (since we're moving at a snail's pace in a line of cars anyway). She can stand up and we can start our lingering moments then. We hold hands, she gives me a kiss on my cheek, I give her one back. And then when the car comes to a stop, I get to give her my usual drop-off bear hug and of course, our kissing hands. Then she's yanked out of the car by a 10-year-old and whisked off to start her day.

Such a brave girl, there was no crying today on this big "first" step. And Izzi didn't cry either...

Generation Gaps

Isabelle started to get into video games about two years ago when Santa brought us a Wii for our family. We played it rabidly for about a year but have since slacked off on using it much. We were talking about firing it up recently after dinner one night and Ed & I started to tell her about the video games we played as kids. She loves to hear stories about what we did for fun growing up.

We just so happen to own an Atari 2600 joystick simulator game that you plug into your TV and play about 10 of the old classic games like Pong, Adventure, Breakout and Millipede. So we told Iz to try Adventure which is a game sort of like Brave where you have to get your guy through a castle to pick up keys and fight off a dragon and return the treasure at the end. She was very excited. Until we turned it on. LOL.

She was so confused looking at the screen. Ed and I couldn't help but laugh at a) the ridiculous-ness that the graphics were in 1980 and b) the look on Isabelle's face and how she literally could not even figure out where to begin.

So Ed told her "OK, you have to just start moving your guy and you'll find stuff you have to pickup".

Iz: Daddy, there is no GUY on the screen

Ed: Sure, he's right here (pointing at the TV screen).

Iz: Daddy, that's just a brown square.

Ed: Yea, well that's how they made our "guys" back then.

Iz: OOOOOK, so how do I move my square?

Ed: It's a "guy"

Iz: How do I move my GUY, then?

Ed: Just move your joystick.

Iz: What in the world is a joystick?

It went on like this for 20 minutes. It was comical and scary that such an easy game couldn't be figured out by our technologically experienced almost-first-grader.

So then we finally start remembering how to play and get around the castle. We eventually meet the almighty green dragon!!! Iz started laughing.

Iz: THAT'S the DRAGON? HAHAHAHAHA, he's not scary AT all. He actually looks more like a green amoeba.

Me: How do you know what an amoeba is?

Iz: Cuz we learned about them in school and they have no shape. And that dragon definitely has NO shape.

Lord help us! She's already smarter than us.

A Week of Firsts

Isabelle is going through another growth spurt. Her emotions are all over the place, she cries at the drop of a hat, and she's accomplishing new things every day.

Just this weekend, we were swimming over at Mom-Mom SuSu's house and she finally let Ed teach her how to swim underwater without holding her nose. This was a big feat for sure, we've been working on it for the two years since we moved to Florida. The kid can swim like a fish, she can dive down for rings on the bottom of the deep end, and she finally mastered a pretty decent cannonball (even though she can't create much of a splash since she's so small). But this past weekend, she stopped holding her nose and now can jump in, swim, and dive underwater without holding her nose.

Then on Monday, she was able to yo-yo for the first time. She can get it rolling up and down about 4-5 times before it finally peters out. Hey, I think that's probably more than I can do.

And finally, she told us she was R-E-A-D-Y to get those training wheels off of her bike. I knew she'd eventually come around to it so we haven't pushed it. We tried to take them off a few months ago and just was NOT prepared or confident enough to give it an honest try so we put the trainers back on her bike and figured we'd wait until she made up her own mind. That was yesterday. We don't have the benefit of hills in Florida so we had to settle for the grass field in our local park. The grass is super short, almost like a putting green so it's pretty easy to pedal on it. It took her about 10 minutes and then she finally just got it. She wasn't confident enough to give it a try on the sidewalk or pavement yesterday, but we'll go up to the park each day after dinner and let her practice a few minutes. I think it should only take her a few days before she's ready for the open sidewalk and we'll go back to riding bikes to school (or Rec Center Summer Camp in a few weeks).

So this has been a BIG week for our little girl. She's growing so fast and she continues to amaze us every day. Kindergarten wraps up here in just 3 weeks, I can't believe the school year is already over. What a fast, fun year it's been. Looking forward to a fun eventful summer, starting with a summer vacation in Maryland the day after school lets out for 10 days.

The Sky is Falling!

Well, maybe not the sky, but Isabelle's teeth sure are. Less than a month later and we have six teeth gone now. Her bottom two came out with her adult teeth already grown in. The other 4 have no adult teeth in sight and I'm not sure she has the room anyway. She's very proud of herself, all grown up.

Thisth is Getting Interesthting

Isabelle went to bed one night this week and after about 30 minutes, came running and crying out of her room. Her mouth was full of blood and she was inconsolable. She went straight to Daddy and said, "TAKE IT OUTTTTTT!"

Iz has been sporting a pretty major snaggle tooth for weeks now. Her 4th loose tooth was one of her largest, one of her upper central incisors. She was taking a drink from her metal water bottle in the dark and must have hit it just the right way to give it a good knock and now she finally was prepared to let Ed yank it for her, after weeks of refusal.

So, now we have a listhpy Isthabelle in the house who is constantly playing with her gap tooth with her tongue. Now we're really in the awkward years for pictures.

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

Iz and I had to run an errand on Sunday around lunchtime. Ed was getting some stuff done around the house so just us gals went out. Normally, Izzi will fight me about going on an errand, especially if Daddy is home and she could just stay home. But she didn't fight me on Sunday for some reason, she willingly came along with me and was quite pleasant to boot. Not sure why but it was a nice little hour of girl time with my favorite gal.

As a special surprise, I took her to lunch. Except lunch wasn't at a normal restaurant. I took her to Baskin Robbins. She was quite confused when I asked her what she wanted. "Don't I have to eat lunch first?". Nope, kid, today we're having ice cream sundaes for lunch.

She was really excited when she ordered her mint chocolate chip hot fudge sundae with crushed oreo cookies. Ice cream for lunch, and not just dessert. What a concept. It was a fun surprise, one of many I hope to spring on her in this new year of 2014.

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.