The ugliest doll in the world

A few months ago I bought Audrey a new book series called Frankly Frannie. Apparently there is some mention in the books about a character making sock dolls and selling them. So Audrey of course decided that she just had to make a sock doll. I didn't even know what a sock doll was, but the Frankly Frannie website was kind enough (insert sarcasm right here) as to post a link to a site that shows you how to make one. I took a peek at the site and begged her to just let me buy her a doll. Nope, she wanted to make one herself. Great. I told her we would try to make one, but not to get her hopes up too much. She and Sophie both ran to their room and grabbed a huge handful of socks. Not even cute socks, but stained up, grubby socks with lots of pilling on them. I cut the first piece just as the directions stated and told them to fill it with stuffing which they did and then I sewed it up. Hmm, not too hard I thought. Then came the arms. Again, I followed the directions to a T. That's odd I thought, why are the arms so out of proportion? Then came the legs. By this time the girls and I were about to cry we were laughing so hard at how dumb these 'dolls' looked. I didn't even bother with the hair or face at this point. I just told the girls to finish it up themselves. And they did. With creepy results.

 Yep, we've got some mad craft making skills in this house.

Keeping the tooth fairy busy

Yesterday morning when I sent the girls off to school I crossed my fingers that Audrey and Sophie would lose a tooth while they were gone. Yeah, go ahead call me a crappy mom. That's okay, I totally agree with you if you do. You see I hate dealing with loose teeth. It grosses me out big time and I always make my husband be the one to pull the teeth around here. The bad thing about that is is he's rarely home to do it. He works 13+ hours a day and when he gets home at night Audrey and Sophie are already asleep. Anyway, when they left yesterday morning they both had a tooth dangling and I just knew they would fall out during lunch. Nope, didn't happen. I thought surely it would fall out during dinner, but that didn't happen either. I knew at this point that I had to do something otherwise they would end up coming out during the night and they would swallow them in their sleep (trust me this happens. Kylie did it about 3 or 4 times when she was younger.) I took a tissue and wrapped it around my finger and told Audrey to bite down on it. She did and her tooth came right out. One down, one to go. I tried the same thing with Sophie. The little stinker bite down alright. She bite down on the wrong side of her mouth and nearly took my finger off! She ended up panicking and I told her we would deal with it in the morning and I sent her to bed. Around 9:00 my husband came in from work and I guess Sophie heard him. She jumped out of bed to show him her loose tooth and the next thing I knew she was showing me the tooth in her hand. Thank God!

By the way, she is wearing the same nighty Audrey wore when she lost her first tooth. It cracked me up when I was looking at the pictures and realized that.

After her tooth was pulled she went right to bed and fell asleep. The tooth fairy then sat down and composed a "so you've lost your first tooth letter" for Sophie and gathered up some money for the little snaggle tooth girls. Then the real fun began. Here's just a reminder of the kind of bed the girls share:

How lucky we are that the tooth fairy can fly right? I mean, I would sure hate to be the one to try to smuggle not one, but two teeth out from under those pillows way up there without waking up two little girls. I mean, call me crazy but that sounds like it might be a little hard to do. Luckily all went well and this morning I had two very excited little girls.


My lame attempt to get a picture of the snaggle tooth kids.

 I still can't  believe that not only did my youngest start kindergarten last week, but she lost her first tooth too. Hopefully now that she's got this milestone behind her she'll slow down a little and let me enjoy having her be little just a bit longer. Something tells me that's probably not going to happen though.

And so it begins.........

This week was kind of bittersweet for me. On Monday I took Sophie to school to sign her up for the bridges program. The bridges program is something our school has set up to for kindergarteners to help prepare them for the transition to school. We found out that she will be having the same teacher that Audrey had last year for first grade. She and Audrey thought this was completely hilarious. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she went to school for half a day (our kindergarten is full day here) to get a taste of how things would be.

I snapped a picture of her before she left on Monday and all I can say is "Wow!" I cannot get over how much she has grown. She and Audrey now wear the same size in everything except shoes. As excited as I am to see her growing up I am having a really hard time dealing with it. I can't believe this is my baby! She did really well (and so did I. No tears. I swear) and had a great time. She was actually upset when she found out that she has to wait two more weeks for school to officially begin. Personally I'm kind of hoping the next two weeks go by very slowly.

A bittersweet moment

A few days ago I did something that I had been dreading for quite some time. I preregistered Sophie for kindergarten. Don't get me wrong I'm very excited for her to start school and she is too, but I'm just having a hard time dealing with it. She's really looking forward to all the fun arts and crafts projects, learning to read and most importantly making some friends. I'm looking forward to all those things as well, but well she's my baby. This wasn't supposed to happen for a really, really long time.
When I registered Kylie for kindergarten I was super excited. Sure, I knew I was going to miss having her at home, but I knew that I had Audrey and Sophie at home. I remember being so shocked at how much she changed during that first year. Some changes were wonderful, but some not so great. I remember being absolutely shocked when my sweet little girl decided that she hated all things character like her once beloved Disney princesses. And the eye rolls. I thought I was going to die the first time I saw her do that. Sadly, I see it more and more the older she gets.
When I registered Audrey I was excited but seeing how much Kylie changed once she started school I was a little nervous. I dreaded seeing her do the same thing and of course I kept reminding myself that I still had Sophie at home. I ended up being pleasantly surprised. School actually seemed to help her with her shyness a lot. She's come out of her shell a lot and even calls her classmates on the phone from time to time. She does have a little bit of the attitude, but not too bad. She doesn't do the eyes rolls (yet), but she is really good at the long drawn out mooooommmm thing.
Sophie of course already knows all the little attitude things since she has big sisters.  I think for me it's extra hard this time around because I know that this is it. There are no more babies at home to take care of. There is no one to keep me company during the day. I won't have a little shopping buddy or someone to play dolls with or do puzzles with. And as much as I complain about all the dumb shows that come on television during the day (Calliou, Dirt Girl anyone?) I'm going to miss hearing all the themes songs and seeing the smile on her face whenever Curious George comes on. So if you guys notice I'm posting a little less these days you'll know why. I'm trying to soak up each and every last minute with my preschooler.

Charlie and Lola take two

When Kylie was about four years old she discovered the show Charlie and Lola based on the books written by Lauren Child.

An obsession soon began. After scouring the internet I was finally able to come across a few of the Charlie and Lola books, but as far as merchandise? Zilch. Naturally when her fifth birthday rolled around she told me that she wanted the theme to be..... you guessed it, Charlie and Lola. My children have always been really good about not asking for a lot so on the occasions when they do ask for something I will usually do whatever I can to get it for them. In this particular case I had to order party supplies from the U.K. The funny thing is that at the party none of the kids that came even knew who Charlie and Lola were. It didn't bother Kylie though, she knew and that was all that mattered.

Fast forward a few years and the Charlie and Lola phase kind of died out in our house. Don't get me wrong she still loves the show, but the obsession with it is no longer there. At least not for her. You see I bought the girls all of the Charlie and Lola dvds when they came out, but over the years they became very scratched up so they kind of quit watching them. Then one day I was browsing Amazon and saw that they had the box set on sale. I ordered it and now the obsession has been revived. In Sophie. For the past few months she has been watching the dvds everyday. Not only is she watching the dvds she has me read the books to her. Everyday. And she tries her absolute best to speak like Lola and now she is wanting to dress like her. I was browsing the Next website recently and she saw a dress that she insisted I buy her because it was "just like Lola's!" Being the pushover I am I ordered it for her and now of course she wants to wear it everyday. I can't really complain too much though because there are far more annoying things she could be obsessed with. I did however have to draw the line recently when she told me that she needed to have blond hair like Lola's. 

Happy birthday Sophie

It's so hard to believe that it's been five years already!

Slightly freaking out........

Everywhere I look lately I see Christmas countdowns. I see them on pretty much all the websites I frequent, at the stores and in the newspaper. It is freaking me out! Not because of Christmas, I'm totally ready for that. It is freaking me out because my baby, my sweet, precious little baby will be having her birthday just two days before Christmas. Everytime I see one of those counters and mentally deduct two days I whimper a little. Yes, I always get kind of nutty around the girls birthdays, but this one is really hitting me hard this year. This year Sophie will be turning five and that means that come August she will be *sniff* starting school. And I won't have my little buddy to hang out with anymore. I know, I'm pathetic. She of course is stoked over turning five. She makes a point of telling everyone she sees that her birthday is coming up (along with telling them that anything Hello Kitty would be fine for a gift) and how old she'll be. So be prepared because I'm sure I'll be inundating you guys with plenty of pictures in JUST SIX DAYS.  

Oh what a night!

About every three months or so I go through the house and purge clothes and toys to donate to Goodwill. Yesterday evening I decided to go in Audrey and Sophie's room and get rid of some toys. Not only do we have Christmas coming up, but Sophie has a birthday this month as well so I kind of figured I better make some room. I filled 5  trash bags full of toys. The kids didn't even blink. Sad isn't it? As I was finishing up I noticed Sophie's frog Hattie sitting on the top bunk naked. A few weeks ago I washed poor Hattie's dress and put it on a hanger assuming that Sophie would either put it on her or ask me to. Apparently she did neither. 
Sophie told me that she did not know where Hattie's dress was. Not good. See the company that made Hattie discontinued making this line of stuffed animals a few years ago. She now has a new line out, but they don't quite look the same so buying another replacement to sneak in was pretty much out of the question. So the search began. I looked through all the bags again to make sure we didn't accidentally put it in with the donations. I went though all the toy baskets, dresser drawers, shoe boxes, etc. No dress anywhere. Sophie ended up crying herself to sleep on the couch last night and I was pretty close to doing the same thing myself. Luckily this morning super dad found it. It was stuffed in a box with some dress up clothes that I looked through twice last night. I think I'm going to have one very happy little girl when she wakes up this morning.

This and that

Sorry to have been MIA, things are starting to get crazy around here with the holidays coming up. Here's a little taste of what's been going on around here..... 
Audrey came home from school the other day and calmly announced that her teacher has cancer. I kind of figured this out about two months ago, but I was trying to decide if I should say anything to her or not. I didn't want to scare her or have her act differently around her teacher, yet at the same time I wanted her to understand why she was missing school so often. Apparently I over thought things because she seemed to take it in stride. I'm not sure what kind she has, but it looks like it's in remission and she just finished up the last of her treatments. 
Kylie  had kind of a big week last week. On Tuesday she was in a Thanksgiving  program at school and she did fantastic. Before you think I'm bragging on her part in the program, I promise I'm not. This child has the worst anxiety you have ever seen. Usually when she has something like this we are both in tears by the end of the night. I'm crossing my fingers that she is finally starting to outgrow it somewhat. 
She also lost a tooth last week. She hasn't lost one in years and I was under the impression that she wasn't supposed to lose anymore until she was ten, but I guess I was wrong. The funny thing is that everyone always teases her about losing her teeth because when she says that she lost a tooth she means she really lost a tooth. As in she dropped it or swallowed it. She has probably only put about three teeth out of the eight (or is it nine?) she has lost under her pillow. When she was in kindergarten she would write the tooth fairy a letter explaining why she had no tooth and leave it under her pillow. Well guess what happened to this tooth? Yep, she was brushing her teeth and spit it out and it went down the drain. Luckily dad was home to save the day. 
And of course Sophie. I've been trying to really kick things into gear with her numbers and letters. For some reason we've been having a really tough time with her counting and that's been frustrating both of us. If anyone has any good suggestions I would love to hear them.
As for me I am one happy Mama. Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our eleventh year of marriage and Duke had their first basketball game. Could not ask for a better way to wrap up the weekend.

Mommy's got some more bragging to do!

Sorry guys, but mommy has got to brag on her kids some.
Yesterday Audrey brought home her AR folder and she had all 100's in it. I'm so excited because she wasn't doing so hot on her AR tests when school began and I know that she has been working really hard on her reading. She tends to compare herself to Kylie a lot and even though she is just as smart as Kylie she doesn't see it and gets down on herself a lot. Typical middle child behaviour I suppose. 
Kylie is also doing really well on her AR tests. She set a goal for herself at the beginning of the school year, she wants to make the 100 book club by Christmas. Currently she is at 81. I think she'll make it. She's testing on books in the upper fifth grade level (she's in third) so I was a bit worried about her getting in over her head, but she seems to be doing fine. She also won second place in a writing contest between the third, fourth and fifth grades. She's a little embarrassed because now her essay is being submitted for competition among the other schools in the county. She hates extra attention so this is killing her. 
Sophie? Well she had kind of a rough night last night so I'm going to have to dig deep here. Hmm..... oh she helped me make this cake yesterday and didn't even try to eat any of the chocolate. she's a huge chocoholic so that's saying a lot.

Don't laugh at my pitiful jack-o-lantern. Well okay, go ahead and laugh, I know it's kind of sad. I've been told that it tastes really, really good though. I wouldn't know because I've haven't had any since I'm trying to be good and all. Anyway, I'll quit bragging on my awesome kids now. I hope all of you have a fantastic day today!

Ah, that Sophie

When I first began my blog I did so mostly so I could have a place to vent about how insane life was. I had a one year old, three year old and five year old and a husband that was rarely around to help out. Kylie and Audrey were pretty easygoing, but Sophie? Ah, she was a completely different story.

You know you love me mom.

At home she was just an angel, but nine times out of ten if I tried to go out in public with her it would result in tears. I remember calling my husband at work many times and asking him to please bring home some milk so I wouldn't have to take our precious darling to the store. Yes, it really was that bad. There is one shopping trip that particularly stands out in my mind. We were in Target and I was trying to hurry up as quickly as possible and get my groceries and get home. Sophie was screaming so much that an old lady followed us all over the store. I can only assume that she was waiting to see if I would lose it completely and beat the child so she could whip out her phone and call child services on me. She was shopping with a friend of hers and the friend came along and yelled at us to get out of her way. I turned around in tears and practically ran to the register. It was truly horrible. And the bad thing? I ended up forgetting half of the things I had gone after in the first place. 

I want to go outside now!

Luckily since then things have gotten much, much better. My husband is still rarely around to help out with the girls, but they have gotten older so taking them places is generally pretty easy. Or so I thought. Yesterday I had to make a return to gap. So Sophie and I set off on our merry way and had a really great time at the mall. We went into several stores and shopped and she was fantastic. Then as we were leaving I asked her if she wanted to stop by the consignment sale. I didn't need anything, I was just curious if some of the things I had put in the sale had sold or not. She told me that she wanted to go and off we went. Things went well until she saw this thing:

 

 She was convinced it was going to be hers. I was convinced I was not spending $40 on a toy for her. Tears ensued. I finally wrangled her into her carseat and drove all the way home with her kicking and screaming. I'm pretty sure my husband felt a sense of deja vu when he received a phone call at work yesterday with me crying about his spawn precious child and blubbering on about needing a drink. 

Who me? I would never throw a tantrum.

 I'm hoping that yesterday was just a weird fluke type thing because I truly think I'm getting too old for this kind of thing. But just in case we will be staying home today.

Mommy is in trouble again

I have a confession to make. I swear. Not on an everyday basis, but sometimes things happen and a word or ten two may slip out. My husband keeps telling me that one day it's going to bite me in the butt and well.... I guess that day came.
First let me give you the back story. Last week my sidekick Sophie and I went to do some shopping. When we were leaving the shopping center a bus ran a traffic light and almost hit us. Scared the hell out of me. Needless to say the bus driver got an earful.  Then two days later we almost were run over by another bus. I kid you not, I could not make this up if I tried. I was running errands with the kids and as we were leaving our neighborhood they noticed a bus in someones yard dropping them off. They thought it was strange that a bus would pull into someones driveway and I was explaining to them that the bus was from a local group that works with mentally challenged adults. As we neared the exit of our neighborhood the bus driver started backing out. I guess he/she figured that being in a neighborhood as opposed to on the highway they didn't need to you know, look behind them. I had to slam on brakes to keep from being run over. Once again words were screamed spoken.
Apparently someone was listening in. Closely. You see, yesterday my husband had the day off work. Sophie was playing in the living room and basically minding her own business and for some reason he thought it would be funny to tease her. Why he insists on doing this I don't know, but he does. I wasn't in the room so I didn't hear exactly what he said but he later told me it had something to do with telling her that he was going to trade her in for a boy. She called him a stupid ass. He actually came into the room to fuss at me about it because according to him he knows exactly where she picked it up. Can you feel me rolling my eyes here?  I mean really. You act like one, you're gonna get called one. Apparently he doesn't agree with me so now I'm the bad mommy yet again. Oh well, I guess there are worse things I could be. Like a stupid......never mind, not gonna go there.

For your viewing pleasure...........

Everytime I take out the camera to snap some pictures of my kids they inevitably ask me to "make a movie". Sophie asked me to make one of her and I thought I would share (don't worry, it's very short). 

In case you don't understand what she's saying it is "you gotta wiggle it, just a little bit." Yep, we are so proud. I suppose I should be relieved that she didn't sing Promiscuous Girl by Nelly Furtado as that seems to be her new favorite lately. 

A big milestone

Yesterday was a very big day in our house. Audrey and Sophie got their first real haircut. Now I'm sure some of you may be rolling your eyes and thinking "big deal, it's just a haircut", but not for us. I've been wanting to cut Audrey's hair for years, but no go.

I cut Sophie's almost two years ago so she has had an actual cut, but since then she hasn't wanted hers cut either.

I did trim a few inches off of Audrey's two years ago and she did not speak to me for days. And no, I am not exaggerating. She has been getting frustrated since school started back because she said people are constantly touching her hair. She has always been hyper-sensitive to touch (absolutely no kisses and only the occasional hug) so she declared it was time to say goodbye to the long hair. Not to be outdone Sophie decided she had to get hers cut too. Can you say competitive? So here we go....

 Anxiously awaiting that first cut.

 

 The first cut!

And approximately 18-20 inches later.......

And now it's Sophie's turn!

 The first cut.

And both girls after:

Unfortunately I did not get as many pictures of Sophie as I did Audrey because Kylie and Audrey were getting antsy at this point and I was having to constantly deal with them. So far I'm loving the new hair. Not having to deal with a mass of tangles this morning before school was a fantastic bonus too. Audrey actually woke up an hour early this morning for school because she was so excited for everyone to see her new 'do. Hopefully all the responses she receives will be positive ones and she'll want to keep her hair this length cause Mommy is liking it!

Well guess the moon trip is off for now

Sometimes I just can't believe the things that come out of my childrens mouths.  Today I was in Sophie's room and out of the blue she said, "Mom, we are not going to the moon next week."  Umm, okay?  She then continued on, "We're going to go to the beach instead."  The entire time she is saying this her arms are crossed and her little forehead is creased so I know she is not happy.  I ask her why aren't we going to the moon (seriously, who told her we were?!?) and she said, "I don't want to go! We don't have spacesuits or rockets so we're going to the beach instead!"  Guess that settles things doesn't it?

Wordless Wednesday: Best Friends

Meet Sophie's best friend Hattie.  These two have been best buddies for years now.  Hattie was there for Sophie when she had her skin graft years ago and has been there for her ever since.  She goes shopping with us, to gymnastics, the library, the beach and pretty much everywhere we go.