10 years of Wedded Bliss

Decided to create a post to honor our wedding anniversary, even though Ashton has expressed disappointment several times at not being invited to the event (!?).






Anyway, just got wedding photos scanned so decided I should post a few. Yes I think we look exactly the same today and anyone who wants to suggest otherwise will do so at their peril. We miss you mom & dad Bear.

Those silly things kids say

I know everyone who is around children has their stories about things that child says that are either a) funny or b) odd or c) profound or d) all of the above. We all know that kids are both smarter then we give them credit for and more observent then we are.

Anyway here is one of those stories to share.



Ashton -- 4.5 years old
"Mom what are we going to do about the candles? All our princess dresses are flammable."

Now, this is/was a completely legitimate question. There was an entire table of girls in princess costumes [which are, indeed, highly flammable due to the vast amount of tulle]. Birthday cake was on its way and candles would be involved, for singing and wish making. Essentially a scene from any 4 year old [girl] birthday party, trust me, I'm becoming the expert on the topic.

Of course, the mother standing next to me at the party asked "Did she just say that the dresses were flammable?" (!). To this I had to sigh and say "yes".

I also know exactly how Ashton came to know about the risk of flammable princess dresses and birthday candles concern -- yup its all my fault.

In my defense, I was not being a paraniod mother, nor was I planning to make my child sound like someone in an old folks home. It happened the same way that all conversations happen with Ashton, very innocently and normally until such point as you somehow jump off the cliff and end up explaining something she doesn't need to know for years and years.

I am pretty sure the discussion was several months ago, since I do remember it but can't place exactly which birthday it was. The conversation went something like this:


Meg: Scoot back a bit honey[from the table/birthday cake]
Ashton: Why ?
Meg: because there is a candle there
Ashton: Why do I need to scoot back when there is a candle there?
Meg: Well, you are wearing a princess dress and its a bit close to the flame [in fact the dress is almost in contact with the flame]
Ashton: Why can't my princess dress be close to the flame?
Meg: because Princess dresses are flammable.
Ashton: what does that mean?
Meg: it means they could catch fire easily and that might not be a very fun thing for a birthday party

Of course, I realize where I went wrong with the whole discussion now, but honestly you never expect that they are listening to you anyway, let alone planning to quote you around other 4 year olds!

Somehow, you think that if you just answer matter of factly, with some specific detail, it will make the questions stop. Anway, there you have it, I have a 4 year old who would fit right in any senior citizen's club, I guess that is something.

All Princess all the time

My house is a house of princesses. I have no idea how long this "phase" lasts but I can tell that I'm smack dab in the middle of it. It goes way beyond princess movies and princess dress up clothes. Everything in our lives is brought into the context of a princess. So who do I have to thank for this? Is it Disney? Their excellent marketing department? The friends at school? While there is probably some culpability on all sides I have to say that I am even to blame. Let me explain:

You are in the store and have to get something, we'll say a toothbrush. You can either get some generic toothbrush and not be sure if its accepted or rejected OR you can go with the princess one. Sure it costs you a bit more but you figure how much is it worth to you to have no hassles about "I don't like my toothbrush" or worse "Jacqueline got the better toothbrush" or "I don't want to brush my teeth". Nope you decide very quickly that princess is the clear winner by any measurement.

Then you find yourself using princess as a description of good behavior. "would a princess eat like that? I think not." "would a princess take her sister's blanket and make her cry?" and so on.

After awhile you find yourself happily going to the disney store to buy lunchboxes and jammies and that is when you decide that, hey these girls look pretty cute -- just like a princess.

So of course then you plan the Disney trip to include the "princess lunch" and find yourself looking forward to it. What can I say? Its all princess all the time... now where did I put my tiara?

School's out for summer

Ah yes its true, I've turned into a mom. I remember vividly thinking that the whole topic of a year round school year was just dumb, and now I'm finding myself thinking... hmm why does a school year have to ever end?

To be fair, having a school year that goes from Sept to July is pretty close to year round. I guess the real reason to end the school year is the end of year party and to get a chance to look at all the fun school by-products.

The most interesting of school artifacts this year was the journal. What a cute idea to have a 4 year old keep a journal. From this journal I got a whole new insight into how information travels from home to school to be chronicled by a teacher taking dictation. I learned such sage information that Ashton likes bugs (huh?!) and that Jacqueline likes cheese puffs (true).

I also had the sappy mom-happiness of reading "Jacqueline loves me" chronicled as well. All kinds of fun.

Where is our firetruck anyway?

Its been a big few weeks. Getting home, getting the house back together, getting another trip to Urgent Care for Ashton's ear infection, celebrating my birth week and having end of year school stuff has seemed to limited the photo ops.

I think [hope] we are back on track now. The ear infection came as a result of the school pool party that thankfully Bob took her to (last year I got a sunburn and a clear sense that I was walking around in water that was going to give me a rash from the knees down). We caught it early and as a result didn't suffer any real "down time" as a result. Even urgent care was very accomodating cutting our typical 2 hour wait down to 20 minutes.

It was the urgent care visit that took us to San Mateo which was having a street fair and thus giving out these cute firehats. So where is that firetruck anyway? Turns out it is lost in the abyss that is our attic. Good news is that we have no room for it downstairs anyway and as the firehats have already torn it seems we haven't really missed anything anyway.

This weekend had Bob and I off to Napa with Bob's work -- Ashton and Jacqueline had a sleep over at Dan & Jani's with excellent success. Ashton produced her own cooking show with Dan (hope to get the video shortly) and asked the sage question "Why would you have a pool party with a girl who has an ear infection?" when Dan suggested that they could play in the baby pool in the yard. Jacqueline managed to lose her blanket (which was later found at a great cost) and both seemed reasonably happy to see us get home.




Yesterday we did a nice (short) bike trip with the only downside looking to be Jacqueline rubbing off the sunscreen around her eyes. This resulted not only in her eyes hurting yesterday but the appearance of a sunburn under both eyes today.



Today is Ashton's last day of school so we will be starting summer camps and other summer events for August as well as getting back to the swim lessons we keep missing on Saturdays.

I look so cute!

Was trying to decide which cute phrase to have as the title and this one seemed to top the list. Yup, humility is probably one of Jaq's best qualities but honestly she was right when she mentioned that she looked cute.


Other excellent phrases included

"I'll try it" -- this typically said for something her sister was going to do like go on a ride or jump in a pool.
"I closed the door" -- this one really meant that she Opened the door to the room and came out when she was supposed to be napping. To get the full effect of this phrase you have to imagine the biggest smile you could imagine on a baby -- and then make it bigger.
"one more time, watch do-do-Dora" -- this one really speaks for itself.



All in all a good trip. Vic and Lisa and Kathy and Jenny were very nice and accommodating for our many challenges along the way. First challenge was, of course, the big hot water heater fiasco. By Tuesday we had hooked up the old 20 gal water heater which worked enough for a single shower and/or bath and a load of dishes so we were really fine. Surprisingly Jaq never did attempt to crawl into the open hole in the counter where the missing cupboards belonged so really it wasn't too big of a setback.





Then on Wed. all hell decided to break loose. In fact it had started a bit earlier but I was just not catching the signs. Baby wasn't really eating or sleeping much as of Monday but I figured it could be teeth, altitude, whatever. By wed I decided to break out the tylenol and see if I could get a decent nap. Instead I just got a nice mess to clean up as the poor baby proceeded to get sick all over her bed (good thing the hot water was working so a bath was available).



For the next several days we were fighting a major fever and of course getting very little sleep as a result. Ashton was a trooper and was a big help as we attempted to keep on top of the fever and keep baby hydrated. Then on Friday night Ashton came down with it herself. One flight later, a rough night for all and a sunday trip (at home) to urgent care has found out that baby and Ashton got the beloved Hand, food and mouth virus By today Baby had also gotten an ear infection to keep it real. So one round of antibiotics and some extra tylenol for good measure and we should be back to normal by Tuesday.

Oh to add to the fun our washer has decided to not spin anymore and our Tivo seems to be on the fritz as well -- perfect timing. Good news is that our fridge managed to stay working during our vacation so we do have a fridge and the dvd player has come back to life after the rest. I do think our house might just need an electrical/appliance exorcism though. That I hope to delay working on until after I get baby to an ENT doctor and see about getting those tubes in her ears.

Anyway, enough vacations for us for awhile. We need to get back to work to get some rest!

Wedding Mania -- THE dress is here

Yes, in the "unrealistic expectations" section of our childhoods we are about to embark on the biggest one of them all -- at least for girls. The Wedding...

Now I know what you are thinking, how can this be coming up already when our oldest child is only 4? Well we all have forgotten about the little girl wedding initiation process -- the Flower girl. And this is not just any flower girl, this is THE flower girl event of the year. This is the flower girl event that in the imagination of a 4 year old is bigger then any wedding you can imagine -- you don't even need a groom to be a flower girl -- just an amazing dress and someone else to do the vow part.

In fact I'm pretty sure that the vows are not even reaching consciousness, its all overcome by the ability to wear this dress and have people gasp in delight. Really is there anything else to a wedding? Certainly not when you are 4!



So what is the job of "mother of the flower girl" -- hmm.. never thought about this before -- in fact NONE of the parenting books I had other people read for me ever mentioned this dilemma.

And yes it is a dilemma of vast import

1) How am I going to control the expectations? I guess that will need to be a discussion, or several discussions over the course of her life -- no I do not plan to pay for your wedding -- I *might* consider purchasing your wedding dress as long as it doesn't cost as much as that flower girl dress...
2) What are we going to do with "the dress" after its over? Clearly you can't wear it -- do you realize what 4 years olds do in a day?!
3) What do we tell your sister when she wants her own dress event -- hmm... I'd suggest we block it out of family history forever (hey it worked for the Pharoah) but I'm SURE that isn't possible when the older sister will happily rub it in for the rest of their lives

and speaking of missing out of a dress opportunity I would like to bring up the fact that I never had an 8th grade graduation dress or necklace Mom & Dad. Yes I'm still keeping score -- I'm sure my girls will be much more evolved then I am with things like that.....

Makes you say hmm......

No pressure Shannon but Jacqueline's future happiness is in your hands ;-)