Loopy

Kate and I just had a ridiculous conversation about the kitchen cabinets, which she kept pronouncing "tabinips." She was stuck like a broken record, going round and round repeating her opening phrase, "Mom, the tabinips...," then realizing she was still mispronouncing cabinets, getting frustrated and starting over from the beginning, only to helplessly say tabinips again. I'm sure it didn't help one bit that I could not keep myself from laughing. I was trying to stifle it, honestly! But of course that only made the urge to laugh even worse. She finally got angry enough at me and frustrated enough with herself that she just huffed off into the living room to watch Bob the Builder instead. I never did find out what was up with the cabinets.

Poor kid. It's tough to be misunderstood. I'll have to loan her my copy of Catcher in the Rye.

Christmas Dresses, The Conclusion

I keep forgetting to put up a photo of the dress Maggie chose for Christmas after she and Kate cold-heartedly rejected my first pick. I went back and bought a few other choices and let Maggie have her favorite from those. Here's the one she chose:



It's from Target so it's not too expensive. I like the color, but the fake Santa fur around the collar is not my favorite thing ever. So of course that fur is exactly why she liked it best! The skirt has little fabric roses all over it. Fussy!

Anyway, Kate immediately wanted one just like it and for once Maggie balked at the idea of them dressing identically. She may be growing out of the appeal of looking like your little sister's twin. I talked her into it though because I can't stand to try to find a dress that doesn't clash with this one, so Christmas twinkies it is! She'll have far more egregious things to hate me for in a few more years and will forget all about this, I'm sure.

I did also manage to find white tights and black Mary Janes for both of them and a dress for myself. Whew, I'm glad that's over. Oklahoma, here we come!

Katie Sez...

... Mommy Zookeeper, my cup of juice is on the floor.

Mommy Zookeeper??

Wait! Your cup of juice is on the floor? Does that mean that you set your cup on the floor or that it's spilled on the floor?

... Uh, (she holds her hand in the air palm up as though she's philosophizing) spiwwed.

Mommy Zookeeper indeed.

Maggie Sez...

... I like to eat my cinnamon roll upside down so I can taste it better because the icing is on the top of the cinnamon roll and my tongue is on the bottom of my mouth.

Genius!

Maggie Sez...

... Dad, all the hair is gone off the sides of your head.

(as he came in the door from getting a bad haircut.)

... It looks weird. Do you agree with me?


And Katie sez...

... Mom, can I have Doris the Exploris on my TV?

I'm afraid she really thinks the character is called Doris. WASPy Doris and her lemur sidekick Poots.

Misty Water Colored Memories...

I read somewhere once (where?? I often can't remember. It's so annoying!) that having children is like getting back the first four years of your life. In other words, you get to relive the part of your childhood that you can't remember. I love this sentiment, although I think as a parent you really get to relive all of your childhood, the remembered and the forgotten, the good and the bad.

Today for lunch we are having Campbell's chicken and stars soup, Ritz crackers and cheese, and orange slices. Oh how it takes me back!

I should turn on Sesame Street while we eat. Or play 80's music.

Watch Out, Here Comes the Grinch

I was recently given an offer I couldn't refuse by two of my sisters-in-law: they said they would bump the spending limit on my Christmas present up from $40 to $43** if I would update my blog before I see them both at Thanksgiving. Since I'll do almost anything for $3 worth of cash and/or prizes (not really), here goes...

I do have a little rant that I need to get off my chest, and Kate is spending the morning at the neighbors' having a playdate so this is perfect timing for actually being able to write. I've just spent my precious little free time scouring the stores for Christmas dresses that I hope will be pleasing to the eye of my four year old daughter. I'm feeling a bit like a disgruntled personal assistant to some tacky Hollywood starlet at the moment. Which one of those supermodels is always in the news for throwing a cell phone at her assistant?

Anyway, I don't usually even bother with fancy holiday clothes for the girls. I know lots of women who would die and go to heaven with TWO little girls to dress up every day, but it's just not my thing at all. They usually dress themselves like boys or homeless hobo ex-fairy princesses most days. You have to pick your battles, as they say, and toddler fashion is not the field I choose to die on. If you've ever seen them dressed up for some function, my mom or my mother-in-law probably bought those outfits, god bless them.

But this year we will be at the wedding of my cousin Brad just one week before Christmas, so it seemed like a really good year to go all out and buy them some precious little fancy Christmas dresses to twirl around in. So I went shopping. Before Thanksgiving, even. As soon as the Christmas dresses were out in the stores, I was there. Hold your applause. Almost all of the dresses, at cheap and expensive shops alike, were thin little numbers with no sleeves. We're talking about late December here. Even in Oklahoma, that can be a bitterly cold and dark time of year. Why would I want a sundress made out of flimsy silk like a negligee for my tiny daughters to wear at night in December? Oh, I can pay twice as much to buy the matching WOOL COAT that is supposed to go over it?? You can take that wool coat and stick it in your...

Sorry. Despair drove me into a frenzy of internet shopping that finally turned up this perfect little dress for sale at Dillard's, so I bought three of them (Kate is sort of in between sizes).



Cute, right? Traditional, festive. Girly without being foolish. Fancy enough for a wedding. Perfect. Well, we got the dresses in the mail yesterday, and full of excitement and holiday cheer, I unwrapped them and put them on the girls...

Kate burst into tears. No joke. Weeping. Maggie just said, her voice full of boredom and contempt, "Can I take this off now?"

Seriously. What to do? Do I give two preschoolers a lecture in gratitude and force them to wear the dresses anyway because... well, give me a break! No one said you have the right to be a fashionista in this house. Kids in Africa are starving and would have to wear this dress, second-hand, to school every day IN AUGUST! IN AFRICA! Or something like that.

No, I don't want to turn a holly, jolly Christmas into a death march of shame in black velvet and tulle petticoat. Sigh. So today I was out reassessing the Christmas dress market. To be honest we do already have a dress in Kate's size that once belonged to our niece Ana that will work just fine. Both girls have actually worn it for fun around the house although neither had any occasion to wear a fancy Christmas dress before this. It's red satin with green and cream polka dots and a green velvet shrug, and Kate seems to find it acceptable. I had just wanted to actually buy them something new and maybe matching/coordinating, but I'm over it now.

So I'm on the hunt for something that will pass Maggie's fierce scrutiny. I picked up a couple of options that were less than ideal to my point of view but at least not zebra striped or hot pink... which is why I did this shopping alone and did not take the Mags with me. She doesn't need to know what other monstrosities are for sale out there on the racks, lest we end up with one kid in a nice Christmas dress and the other in a hot pink, glitter-covered, puppy dog-emblazoned sweatshirt dress with purple ruffled leggings and silver sequined tennis shoes. At my cousin's wedding. In the family photographs which will live on in infamy until the end of time. Amen.

I'll let you know which dress Her Highness chooses.

And do you know what else? There are still tights and shoes to get, and I will give you all $5 each if there is no whining about either of those items (if I can actually find them in both of their sizes and don't have to order them online from some horribly expensive boutique). And hair bows - well, you can forget hair bows. Hair bows are dead to me. Are there really people in this world who ENJOY this stuff? How can that be? It's giving me an ulcer.

After this, all I am going to want for Christmas is to spend the entire day in nothing but footie pajamas. ...Oh, and I DID find some super cute cozy footie pjs for the girls for Christmas. That was fun, I have to admit.

**Does this count as "monetizing" my blog?