Goonies

Okay, so we've all been through the 80's and watched the movie The Goonies, right? Or at least you've heard it, if you've called my cell phone recently (yech). Remember this dialog?
Mike: Data, what are you doing?
Data: Setting booty traps.
Mike: You mean booby traps?
Data: That's what I said, booty traps.

So the other day I catch Sam winding string around a couple chairs and strategically laying out legos-
Me: Sam, what're you doing?
Sam: Making booty craps!
Me: You mean booby traps?
Sam: Yeah, booty craps!

Thanks-giving

So this may seem a bit off, being grateful right now, considering all that has been going on lately. I'm now 10 weeks along, and I've managed to loose 12 pounds and have IV administered twice for dehydration. Currently I am receiving home health care and pump therapy, which means that I have medication being ministered via pump directly into my leg. Hyperemisis does this to me every time; it slowly eats away my reserves and it becomes a challenge just to stay afloat.

But really, I am grateful. This is my third time to go through this, and while it has been just as difficult as in the past, I have received better medical help than ever before. Dr. Fiore listened to me from the very beginning and his concern prevented my from becoming very seriously ill. What a blessing to have a doctor who believed me! And I have wonderful friends here in Madison- Dana, Sharon, Julie, Lisa, Natalie and many others have picked up and dropped off my kids from school, watched them for hours at a time (no small favor, that) cleaned, helped unpack, bring cards and food and comfort, and more than anything they have just called to see how I was doing. More than anything else I was afraid that I would move somewhere new, and nobody would notice when I got sick. I was so wrong!

And the grandparents have been heroes. When I was thoroughly incapacitated they took Sam to Memphis for 2 weeks for me. The crazy grandmas came to town and helped us move. And my mom has called me every day, to answer all my medical questions and remind me that she loves me.

But most of all I love my husband. He has taken on himself the mom job and not complained once. This amazing husband moved us from our apartment into our house, unpacked both storage units, has gotten Hannah and Sam ready for school every morning and ready for bed every night, and all the other million things that need to be done. And instead of moaning, he asks if I am doing alright. I think he must be perfect.

Thanks everyone! Just a few more weeks!

31 Flavors

Here's 31 special ways to say I'm 6 weeks pregnant:
arf
barf
become a fountain of flavor
bhluuuugh
blow chunks
brack
call ralph on the big white telephone
call to the seals (arrrrrr aaarrrrrrrrrr)
Chuck your Cheerios
Chunky Belch
commode hugging
copiously cough one's cookies
curl and hurl
eating backwards
facial diarrhea
food flight
Gonna blow
Harf
Like, well, you know
liquidate your assets
Perform peristaltic pyrotechnics
porcelain projectiles
Pressing the reset button
Psychedelic belch
rainbow fountain
Ralphy McMalfee
reverse gears
Screaming at your shoes
shpew
Yack
and my favorite...Yawn in Technicolor.

Yeah! See ya in a couple months!

McCain vs. Obama

Inspired by the recent debates, Richard and I had some Sunday evening fun. We took a turn with each candidate, and let me tell you, there was something extremely satisfying about a well aimed punch:

Crime and Punishment

Legend goes that:

Yon yonder in the early years
The youthful, innocent, blithe, cheery, carefree,
Silly, happy, untroubled, slightly reckless
And foolish Timothy
Took the pen of power,
The instrument of doom,
The permanent black marker
And inscribed his indecipherable runes
All upon the white porcelain throne
In the Nickel home.

And the Father, in the throes of a just rage,
Condemned the thoughtless child
To a punishment suitable to his age
"Here you shall sit and scrub,
And scrub and scrub and scrub and scrub,
Until all the ink is off this tub.
Er, I mean toilet."

And so now Timothy still sits,
Wiping the years away,
Never to go and play,
Because permanent marker is, unmercifully,
Permanent.


So you can understand that when I saw that Sam had scribbled all over the wall with (thankfully) pencil, there was no doubt as to what to do.

He scrubbed, that boy did.



(Once my brother Tim wrote all over the potty in black permanent marker. Dad made him clean it for, well, what seemed at the time to be forever, until he learned his lesson. Then we got another lid.)

Madison Street Festival

We went to the Madison Street Festival this past weekend, and it was a lot of fun. Okay, let me qualify that. Down one side of the street was a row of vendors selling nice crafts, albiet nothing like the cool stuff at the Memphis festivals- Pink Palace Crafts fair, Italian Festival, Germantown Festival, Overton Square...Memphis was pretty hip. But down the other street it was the Madison Church Festival! All the more prominent churches in the area each had a booth and were spreading the word with go fish games, clowns, ball drop games, bubbles, handouts, and all kindsa friendliness. Hannah and Sam had a blast. It was a good Saturday morning.

Trick or Treat?

We just found out that we are scheduled to close on our house October 31st. Yeah!!!

Here's the plan: close at one, move in and be passing candy by that evening. We can totally do it, right!?

In celebration I spent an hour wandering around Lowe's and Home Depot, waiting for inspiration to strike and snatching up any color that looked good to me. Here's the somewhat overwhelming result:



Hmm, do ya think I like red?

Mr. Crawley

Meet Mr. Crawley, our new pet. (Richard still thinks it's Mr.Crowley, y'know, by Ozzy...)

I knew it was time to get an official creepy crawley when Hannah and Sam started capturing bugs in our apartment and making pets out of them. And so far, he hasn't made us sneeze. Yeah!

Celebrate National Talk like a Pirate Day

Garrrr...Richard assures me this is a highly respected holiday amongst his crew. So go ahead, check it out here, and celebrate Talk like a Pirate Day. or not. probably not.

Sam: I'm a pirate!
Sarah: Oh, well, what do pirates say?
Sam: Ummm......hello.
Sarah: Ha! What else do they say?
Sam: Ummm...Where we going?
Sarah: Do they say Garrrrr, matey!
Sam: Oh yeah, that too.

The Hokey Pokey

Sam must have learned this at preschool this week because he's been singing all kindsa variations for the past few days.
My favorite part is "you put your left head in"
What a ham.

Potty Train-ing

Sam is still potty training, and this is our most recent tactic: each of those pictures, Gordon the express train, Harold the helicopter, and the Toll bridge represent a toy that Sam picked out from Target a few weeks ago. Each time he goes potty, he gets to add a track to one of the empty rectangles, but if he makes a mess he has to take one off. Once the tracks to the toy are complete, he gets that toy.

I totally get mommy gold stars for coming up with such a cool idea, right?

Germantown Festival

This past weekend Richard went down to Baton Rouge, LA to help with hurricane clean-up (what a great guy!) so the kids and I decided to take a trip to Memphis. And while we were there- the germantown festival! yeah! Arts and crafts, rides and funnel cakes, life at it's fullest!

The one ride that both Hannah and Sam liked was the inflated slide. I think this thing was 10 feet tall.


Hannah liked the bouncy moon-walk...

...but Sam did not.

The fastest, wildest ride they had there were these swings that spun around. For me the scariest part was wondering how old this ride was, and how much longer it was going to hold itself together.

Don't let looks deceive you. Sam is only smiling because these race cars are rollin' slower than he usually walks.

This is the best. Sam liked the minature merry-go-round because it was excruciatingly slow. He's all proud of himself for being so brave. And in the background, I swear I can hear Hannah thinking "Are you kidding me?

This is the first ride they went on. Hannah loved it, and Sam cried through the whole thing.

We had a blast! We'll be back next year-

Quote of the Day

Sarah: I don't understand Sam. Is he even thinking?
Richard: Oh, I think he's thinking. I just don't think he's thinking what I think he should think.

No kidding.

12 hours

I received a call from not one, but TWO preschools Tuesday saying that they had openings for Sam. I went on toured both, and finally decided on Trinity Baptist. They have a very comfortable feel, and remind me a lot of Lord of Life back in Memphis. Sam is so excited that when it was time to leave I had to bodily carry him out kicking and crying. Poor boy, I had no idea staying at home with no one but me was so boring. They only had a MWF opening, so I am going to take it and hope that a T/Th opens up later.

So the question is... what in the world am I going to do with almost 12 hours a week of alone time? That's right, no Hannah, Sam, or Richard. You'd think I'd have all sorts of grand plans, but when it finally comes down to it, I just don't know what to do with myself anymore. Give me some good ideas! The more crazy they are, the more likely I am to actually do it!

We have a slab!!

Okay, so we know that absolutely no one is going to be nearly as excited about this as we are, but the builders poured the foundation for our house this week!!! YEAH!!!! And Friday the lumber pack arrived, which means it should be finished in 70 days!!! Woohoo!!! This paragraph gets the award for blatant overuse of exclamation points!!!

We went and hung out today on our slab. Richard and I sat in the master bedroom while Hannah and Sam ran races from the front porch to the back, repeatedly. And then Sam started picking up big chunks of Alabama red clay and throwing them on the slab, and (of course) Richard admonishes "hey- no throwing dirt in the house!". He then started sweeping the clay out with his foot, which was, in one word, hilarious. and silly. Okay, that was two words.

I really wanted to play hopscotch in the den, but didn't want to go to the store for chalk, when Richard (inspired by sam, no doubt) suggested drawing a hopscotch with the red clay. So there you have it. The moores, spending the afternoon on a slab of concrete. they really need to finish our house; I think the apartment life is getting to us.

Wii boxing

Recently I threw Hannah and Sam in the Wii boxing ring together, and they really, really liked it! I'm not sure which was more funny- watching their little characters flail about, or watching the real kids spin and punch and jump and shout. And since the best way to win is to just keep moving...they were pretty well matched. Sam floored hannah a couple times.

Who needs real boxing gloves anymore?

Nantahala Falls

We went to Nantahala Falls last weekend with the whole family, and then some. Richard's parents, my parents, julia, Laura, Jason, and Avery, Michelle, and Hannah and Sam. We all had a great time- The first day most of us went kayaking while Sweetie and Zannah stayed behind with the little kids. We all came back claiming to be soooo tired but I think that the grandma's had the hard job! The Nantahala is a good river to ride even if you don't know anything about kayaking, and it has a pretty exciting class 3 rapid at the end. Everyone else made it through fine- but I went sideways halfway through and flipped! That was the best part!
The next day we went tubing on a milder river and took Hannah with us. Let me tell you, this girl is a little thrill seeker. There was enough white water to flip most of the adults that went down, and this girl was totally game to float the "waterfall" twice! She was so excited the second time that she danced up the trail. Of course, she could dance only because dad was carrying her tube for her!
The last day we hiked up Clingman's dome before saying goodbye to Laura, Jason and Avery. Supposedly there is a spectacular view from on top this highest of peaks, but only on clear days. Most days, like ours, are cloudy, and since we were high enough to be inside the cloud...visibility was not so great. But the hike was fun!

A big thanks to Chief for making this trip happen! He's the best!

Error 18

Here's a big apology to all the avid bannappudding blog readers (that goes to both of you): I'm sorry. My computer hard drive, after years of faithful service, failed. It keeps giving me Error 18 messages and telling me that there are unreadable logical blocks, and that device sda3 and sda2 have irreconcilable errors on them. And we all know what that means, don't we?
Richard keeps telling me that it's okay to use his computer, but I can't shake the nasty suspicion that alien buggers came in one night and implanted magnets into my fingertips, a sure fire way to destroy any hard drive. So I don't want to mess up his, too. Right now I'm booted from a linux flash drive, but I can't access any of my files. Which are, thankfully, backed up safely, secretly, and separately from my magnetized fingers.

So I haven't posted any of the exciting things we've been doing, like kindergarten, kayaking, rick climbing, Children's Museum visiting, Wii boxing, Kung foo panda, playgroups, stranded by a dead battery, alien encounters, and all the like.

Does anyone know what error 18 is?

Sam is nuts

Okay, here's another reason why I love Sam. My parents have this game, Flippin Frogs, and it's a big hit, you know, flinging frogs through the air. But sometimes it's not so easy to share:

Sam: (screaming incoherently)
Me: (firmly, having already counted to three) We're going outside. now.
Sam: I wanna...gasp...(screaming continues)
Me: It's okay baby boy. calm down. tell me what you want.
Sam: (wailing) I want the FLIPPIN' FROGS!!!
Me: (laughter restrained with difficulty) you want the flippin' frogs?
Sam: (subdued, now that someone understands.) uh-huh, I wanna all the flippin' frogs.

The clairvoyant genius who named this game can only be admired.

Our almost house

Here's the floorplan! You'll have to click on the image to be able to really make anything out.

We choose to wall in the dining room so it could be the music studio for Richard. That's right- no more garage band! This way he won't have to thaw his equipment in the winter, and we can all listen to him jam. We're also hoping one day to make the humongo screen porch (3) a sun room.

That's about it! They haven't started construction yet because they're waiting in permits and such, but it should be done by Thanksgiving.

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels flew over our swimming pool! (they wanted a better look at some hot chick:)

There is an air show this Saturday (today) in Madison, and so the Navy Blue Angels and a few other planes have been practicing for the past few days. Since we live rather close to the airport, we've been watching while swimming in the afternoons. Needless to say, Sam did NOT like it when they would scream by right overhead; and the first few times I was cowed down as well! We finally agreed that it was just Big Blue Jet (from Little Einsteins) being a show off. Hannah, being hannah, thought it was awesome, and delighted in trying to figure out what they were writing in the air.

We're not going to the airshow today, incidentally. It would be hot, and crowded, and loud, and we can watch it from our pool anyway! Click on the pictures for a larger view:

Hannah is Five!

Hannah turned five years old!!! Such a big girl in such a little body!


Needless to say, we had a princess party for Her Royal Majesty. She was absolutely delighted, especially with her new dress-up clothes. Zannah got her some fabulous new church clothes, but hannah was most excited about the glam clear sandals with jewels on top, and of course, the new panties (not shown).

I took her to the store earlier that day to get stuff for her party, including princess plates, cups, baloons, streamers, and all sorts of other accessories. I also had to get her presents, and this girl managed to CLOSE HER EYES while I picked out her present, and NOT LOOK at the princess doll sitting under the basket the WHOLE TIME we were at Target. What child has that kind of self control?

Happy birthday to my big girl!

A Sample

Here's a sample of a recent conversation in our apartment:

Richard: Okay Sam, enough washing your hands. Stop playing with the water- you're making a mess.
Sam: Daddy, soap tastes like Yucky.
Richard: You ate the soap and it tasted yucky?
Sam: Yup, I put the soap in the cup and I drink it and it taste like yucky. but then I put water in the cup and it taste Good!

The Mom Song

Get ready to pee your pants, you are going to laugh so hard:
(Lyrics beneath)



Get up now
Get up now
Get up out of bed
Wash your face
Brush your teeth
Comb your sleepyhead
Here's your clothes and your shoes
Hear the words I said
Get up now! Get up and make your bed
Are you hot? Are you cold?
Are you wearing that?
Where's your books and your lunch and your homework at?
Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat
Don't forget! You gotta feed the cat
Eat your breakfast, the experts tell us it's the most important meal of all
Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall
Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today
Don't forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play
Don't shovel
Chew slowly
But hurry
The bus is here
Be careful
Come back here
Did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside, don't play rough, will you just play fair?
Be polite, make a friend, don't forget to share
Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare
Get along! Don't make me come down there
Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away
Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day?
Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
Can you even hear a word I say?
Answer the phone! Get off the phone!
Don't sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table
No more computer time tonight!
Your iPod's my iPod if you don't listen up
Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home?
Saying thank you, please, excuse me makes you welcome everywhere you roam
You'll appreciate my wisdom someday when you're older and you're grown
Can't wait till you have a couple little children of your own
You'll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly
But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me
Close your mouth when you chew, would appreciate
Take a bite maybe two of the stuff you hate
Use your fork, do not burp or I'll set you straight
Eat the food I put upon your plate
Get an A, get the door, don't get smart with me
Get a grip, get in here, I'll count to three
Get a job, get a life, get a PHD
Get a dose of,
"I don't care who started it!
You're grounded until you're 36"
Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven's sake
And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too?
If I've said it once, I've said at least a thousand times before
That you're too old to act this way
It must be your father's DNA
Look at me when I am talking
Stand up straighter when you walk
A place for everything and everything must be in place
Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about
Oh!
Brush your teeth, wash your face, put your PJs on
Get in bed, get a hug, say a prayer with mom
Don't forget, I love you
And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's work never ends
You don't need the reason why
Because, because, because, because
I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so
I'm the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!!
Ta da!!!

Rock band

My friend Julie Wingert's husband Jarome got her Rock Band for her birthday and and then rented out their apartments clubhouse for the most awesome party ever. We were out late, and the video shows it; check the post on her blog for a good laugh:
http://jjwingert.blogspot.com/2008/05/rock-band-birthday-party.html

Seriously, I have got the best friends in Memphis. I love these peoples!

Dublin Park

So, Madison Alabama has the most amazing kids' park I have ever seen in my entire life of being a mother on the prowl for awesome parks to take her crazy children to. It has bendy slides that come out of a dragon's mouth, it has twisty tube slides, tire swings, lounge chair swings, regular swings, wood xylophones, balance beams, cinderella'a coach, an alligator, and a castle and a fort made of crayons, and all kinds of places to crawl around and explore. And the best part is that there's only one entrance, and the rest is fenced, so you can let your kids loose and know they're not gonna escape. This playground was inspired by elementary school kids, and build by volunteers in the community. I LOVE IT!!!

And so do Hannah and Sam

Sam Is 3!!

My younger brother Tim had the misfortune to be born on June 13th, and he has complained every year that we always go on vacation on his birthday, instead of staying at home so he can party. Admittedly, I have never really had much sympathy for his plight- I mean, what could be cooler that your very own birthday family vacation? Who doesn't want to sing happy birthday to themselves while riding in the back of the brown Astro van, (and be sure to stay on your half of the bench seat!)

I think Sam has him beat, though. Every year for his birthday we've moved for the summer to an apartment we've never been in, to a city we're not familiar with, and left the vast majority of his toys behind in Memphis. And when he's older, his birthday will be right in the middle of exam week.

But this year for his birthday we were already settled into our summer apartment, that is, we had finished moving in the furniture that morning. So later we had a party for sam, who wouldn't have even known it was his birthday if his sister hadn't told him several times over. We decked the room with balloons and presents and a cake and he walks in and exclaims "a party for meeee!!" He even had his own personal party manager, hannah, telling him what presents to open next and when it was time to eat cake. Afterwards we went to the playground to play with his new bubble blower, and in true Sam style he dumps out all his bubble solution while looking down at something in the grass- but this time he didn't get it all in his hair!

love you all-

Bama

We're Moving to Huntsville!!!

Richard got the job with RTTC, so we're packing up and driving even further south. We are all seriously bummed to be leaving family and friends in Memphis, but we console ourselves by saying that we're just 3.5 hours away, not 14 hours (like in DC).

Yeah!!!

Disney World!!!

The Moores attack Disney World:
Day One: Magical Kingdom
Day Two: Epcot and Hollywood Studios
Day Three: Animal Kingdom
Day Four: Magical Kingdom Revisited
FAQs

Day One: Magic Kingdom
Before we left, Hannah watched a "plan your Disney Vacation" DVD and made a list of all the rides she wanted to ride, Dumbo being number one. She was so thrilled to actually see the ride that she started jumping and yelling. With the new Fastpass that Disney has started, we managed to ride 10 rides the first day. Yes, TEN RIDES in peak season. It took some planning, but we had to make sure we got all those rides on her list!! Hannah and Sam also really liked It's a Small World (as did I).

Snacks were a well-planned relief. I brought a small cooler that fit in the stroller, and after a couple hours in we would sit down for some cookies and juice. It was good down time and got us to lunch time. In just a few seconds, hannah is going to try and stick her oreo onto Sam's cheek.







Day Two: Epcot and Hollywood Studios
We spent two hours in Epcot tuesday morning, and both were spent at the new Nemo ride. After a cute little jaunt in a clam shell, we were herded into an aquarium of sorts. They had dolphins!! I have never seen them live before, and it was beautiful. There were also Manatees (Barbara was there), and all sorts of tropical fish, including, of course, Nemo, Dori and the gang. Hannah was excited to be the one who found the elusive clownfish- he was darting about all through the coral.

There was also a shark exhibit, and daring kids could crawl into Bruce's mouth. Sam, well, not a chance. But Hannah stepped up after a while and let me take a picture of her being eaten by a friendly shark (kids are friends, not food).









Day Three: Animal Kingdom!!
I LOVE THE ANIMAL KINGDOM!!! It is by far my favorite park. The tree of life is spectacular, as well as the safari (the best time to go is first in the morning). We had a white rhino just a few feet from our jeep, and Hannah loved spotting the birds for me. I don't think I'll ever make it to a real savannah, but this is pretty good. And for the thrillers, the new Mt. Everest ride is by far the best roller coaster I have ever been on. My dad and I rode together, so we have exclusive bragging rights. It makes me smile just thinking about it. It also makes me loose feeling in my legs thinking about it!
Aside from all the rides, there were great places to stop and rest. Hannah and Sam really loved these elephants- sometimes it was hard to get them going agian! In fact, after a while Sam just gave it up and slept for a good hour or two. All that fun can just wear you out!





























Day Four: Magic Kingdom Revisited
We let Hannah choose where she wanted to visit on the last day, and no surprises she chose Cinderella's castle. We rode It's a small world again, along with a few other favorites, including Winnie the Pooh and the Teacups. Hannah agreed to ride on any color teacup, except yellow, which was just not pretty at all. To her elation she got a blue teacup with blue stripes, thanks to some pretty serious maneuvering by her mom. Silly, silly mom. I let Richard take control of the spinning wheel so I could take some pictures- and, well, he took his job seriously. Sam was so funny. He would start to panic, then look at me and Hannah, who were having a blast, and give a few nervous chuckles. Those kids literally wobbled out of the teacup when it was over.








No kidding, that sword came out of the stone just seconds after Richard took this picture.






















FAQs
Did you drive? Yes. We consider ourselves professionals at 14-hour trips now, and so far the kids have always been surprisingly good in the car. But, I think I will fly next time.
Were there any major Meltdowns? Yes, but only one, and on the first day. Hannah, while in line for the Mad hatter's teacup ride, decided that she wanted to ride in a blue teacup, since blue is her favorite color. As fate would have it, some bigger, faster, purely malicious (I'm sure) kids got to the blue teacup before her preschool legs could carry her there. We opted to wait for the next go around, until a nice worker found another blue cup for her. We all happily climbed in until Hannah realized that this cup, although blue, had purple stripes, and so she cried through all the spinning madness. After she got off the ride and had calmed down, I asked her if she wanted to try again on the condition that she would be okay with any color. Her reply: "Maybe we should go back to the hotel."
Where was Richard? He was at an engineering SPIE conference. But he got to come with us to the Magic Kingdom Monday and Friday
Do you have the coolest parents in the world? yes, absolutely. they dropped everything and came to play with us. Incidentally, Hannah and Sam have the coolest grandparents as well.
Will you go back? YES! I am already planning our next trip. In fact, I asked Sam what he wanted to do today, and he said he wanted to go to Disney world.
Did Hannah like the characters? Not particularly. Both kids were happier to look from a distance, which was good because as soon as a character made an appearance an hour-long line trailed after.

Any mom taking kids to Disney World needs a Super Mom shirt.

It Snowed!

It snowed! and in March! and we thought spring spring was on it's way!! We took, no kidding, 231 pictures. Here's the top 25:



Actually, it was the best kind of snow. Warm on Thursday, cooler on Friday, 17 feet (er, 3-4 inches) of snow on Saturday, and all melted by Sunday. It was light and fluffy in the morning, good packing snow in the afternoon, and slushy by late afternoon. We had so much fun! We woke up early and make an igloo big enough for all of us to crawl through, and then we went to Johnson road park to go sledding, er, slushing, well, mudding. There is a huge hill there with a lake at the bottom- Richard went down a little too fast and almost flew into the water, but he rolled off at the last second...but the sled kept going! He had to wade a few feet into the water to rescue the sled. Fortunately by then it was warm enough outside that there was no danger of frostbite and we could keep playing. Hannah went down several times, and took a tumble once with Sweetie. Sam was scared, of course, but I made him go down with me and he laughed the whole way. Towards the end a snowball fight turned ugly and Richard grabbed me and we went rolling and sliding down the hill together, met Mimi at the bottom and stuffed snow down her coat. Then it was time to go home.

Trampoline

We have a compromise in our house: It is permitted to jump on Hannah's bed. It's old and sturdy, and kids have just got to jump on beds. Of course, you can't jump on mom and dad's bed, you can't fly off the couch, and you can't hop on pop.

Every kid that comes to our house thinks this is the coolest thing ever ever ever ever. And it's totally safe, because well, let's face it: Hannah usually has a layer of padding about a foot thick on the floor made from stuffed animals.

Here's a picture of Chandler (Hannah's boyfriend, with superhero glasses) and Sam going at it.

Soon..

Springtime is coming, just around the corner. Our daylillies are pushing on up.

CMOM

Hannah, Sam and I have recently, thanks to Courtney Santo, rediscovered the Children's Museum. We've gone twice this week, all because Hannah woke up at seven, got dressed all by herself, and started asking if it was time to go every 15..no, 5 minutes or so.

She is the CMOM pro. She just walks in, says "follow me, mom" and moves from one exhibit to the next. Today she was especially enamored by a station all about bees.

All your wildest dreams will come true..

Richard and I are filling our American Parental Responsibility this spring by taking our kids to Disney World. Richard has a conference in Orlando and the kids and I are going to tag along.

I'd like to take this opportunity to be cynical, but actually I AM SO EXCITED! It will be magical for them, and a whole different place for me than the one I frequented as a high school band geek. I remember going with my family as a kid and having a blast.

I told Hannah we were going, and later a commercial came on which claimed: Disney World, where all your dreams come true! Not long after we had this conversation:

Hannah: Actually Mom, all my dreams come true at home.
Me: Awww, really?
Hannah: Yes, because when I'm at preschool I dream of being at home and having fun with my family, and then I come home and my dream comes true!

I love her so much.

Happy Valentines

My dear husband's Valentine's card to me. He found this picture on the matrixsynth blog, and no Hallmark could ever hope to rival such an honest sentiment. Always and forever, baby.

I thought it was definitely worth sharing.

Baby Avery, not the stationary

I confess, I am totally in love with this baby girl. She's sweet, she's adorable, and she's my niece, so I can give her back when she cries!

Helmet Head

Hannah got a bike for Christmas, and (Hooray for Memphis) we had some pleasant February weather about a week ago so we went to the park. Hannah and Richard rode up ahead while Sam and I lagged behind. Yes, Sam still prefers riding Fred Flinstone style (feet to the ground, running while sitting) even though he can reach the pedals now.

Of course, the downside to the pleasant weather meant tornadoes the next day, but what else could have been more portentous on the 2008 super-duper tuesday?