October ~ I hardly knew ya.

This is how October looked to me while at work:

Intimidating. Yeesh.

Here is how October looked when I wasn’t at work:

We became a Brownie. How cute is that uniform? All the Moms insisted on the beanie caps. My vote was for purely photographic and scrapbooking purposes. Can you blame me?

We hung out with family.

Celebrated birthdays and flexible little girls.

We roasted pumpkin seeds.

And carved that bad boy. The kids and I love eating roasted pumpkin seeds (olive oil, garlic salt, kosher salt) – the tall man does not. Whatever. More for us.

The grand finale – Halloween.  Oh yeah, and a Gator football game.

Look at all those characters!

Hannah Montana gets a lift from her Mom.

Davy Jones & Lady Liberty (my favorite statue) graciously posed with me before heading out for the night.

Now it’s November… and I don’t anticipate things slowing down anytime soon.  

 

Busy: By the numbers

1 – Cello

1 – Huge addiction to Facebook.

6 - Little Brownies in the Troop

1 – Trip to the midwest

1 – Additional Hotel

2 – Fried computers

A bunch of birthdays.

And some pumpkins.

Okay, so I lost count.  Hey – I said it was busy.

We’re rich!

We decided it was time to try our hand at gold mining. I mean, the economy isn’t that great, so maybe we could strike it rich and retire this way. Sure… it could happen. 

It was worth a try. And we did find some gold… flakes, anyway… and some rocks and minerals.

See! Look at all those treasures!

Speaking of treasure… take a look at these gems:

See – I told ya we were rich!

Life with an Eight Year Old Girl

An exerpt from my evening:

“Hey Mommy.”

“Yes, Sweetie.”

“Guess What?”

“What?”

“Today at school people kept asking me the same question. Guess what it was?”

“What?”

“‘When are you getting your cast off?”‘

“What would you say?”

“Thursday. Thursday. Thursday. Thursday. And Mommy, guess what?”

“What?”

“I had everyone sign my cast. And guess what?”

“What?”

“My teacher signed it too. And Mommy, guess what?”

“What?”

“Erin and Audrey were acting silly with me today. And guess what?”

“What?”

“When I have my birthday party, I want to invite them.”

“Okay, that’s fine.”

“And Mommy, guess what?”

“What?”

“There was this episode of The Suite Life with Zach and Cody (which sounds like she says ‘thesuitelifeofzachandcody’) where London wanted everyone to think she liked animals but then Maddy told everyone that she had a fur coat, and guess what?”

“What?”

“She pretended to save an animal and guess what she did?”

“What?”

“She had Cody pretend to need her help with the animal, so guess what he did Mommy?”

“What?”

“He said “hey-person-I-don’t-know can you help me with this sick animal?’ so then London came over and guess what?”

“What?”

“She said ‘I would be happy to help person-I-don’t-know’ and she gave the animal mouth-to-mouth.”

“Well that’s just silly.”

“I know. And guess what Mommy?”

“What?”

“I read my paragraph to my teacher today and guess what?”

“What?”

“She liked it.”

“That’s great, sweetie.”

Want to buy a pink scooter?

 

Because after this incident, we won’t be needing it for a while… a long while. Forever if it were up to me, but the little girl insists she’ll be getting back on it.

Mack broke her arm when she fell off of her scooter & broke it straight through. She also skinned her knees up so bad; and I had never seen so much blood. (ughhh) We went to the Emergency Room and got her all fixed up.

I really didn’t expect to rush to the ER to have x-rays taken of the girl. I would’ve bet money that the boy would’ve been first. But noooooo… it had to be my precious little delicate flower of a girl.

A few days later we visited the Orthopedic who put the permanent cast on her after x-rays and readjusted the bone in her arm. That was no fun for either one of us… but especially Mack.

See this girl? This girl didn’t know that her bone was going to get popped back into place.  If you look at her wrist you can see a bulge from where the bones were not landing right. I had a feeling the doctor might have to do that so I made sure Blankie and Melody (the red pajama’d penguin) came with us.

I asked the nurse for pain medicine… for myself… but she just laughed at me. I was serious.

After the “realignment” – Mackie felt a whole lot better… however, I was still weak in the knees. It took me two days to get over having to take her to the hospital & now I had to console her while we waited for the doctor to squeeze her arm so hard it would push her bones back into place. That SUCKED I tell you.

She got to choose what color cast she wanted  and even got stripes. (two shades of blue – blush and bashful – okay, just blue)

We stopped for a chocolate shake on the way home. They didn’t have any with vodka in it.

Summer Plans?

The school year is over already. They end early up here… and it sneaks up on a Mom! We’re already on summer break and I still have NO IDEA what the kids are going to be doing while Chris and I are at work each day.

We should probably figure that out soon, huh? We were always shipped off to New York for the summer… now I know why! Summer Camp is expensive & fills up fast!

A few years ago I mentioned to my Mom about the possibility of watching my kids over the summer… like her Mom did for her when we were kids. Her exact response was, “That was a different generation; we’re not going to do that.”

Geez. It’s so hard to find good help these days.

Vacation: By the Numbers

near herald square

• 28 hours driven up & back
• three hotels (and only one decent one)
• five boroughs visited (or driven through)
• four bridges crossed
• 441 photos taken by me (not counting the photos the kids took)
• two New York pizzas (okay, one was technically in New Jersey, but we’re counting it anyway)
• 150+ blocks walked & walked & walked
• 45 degrees – the average temperature for the week!
• 2 ferry rides
• three uncles, one aunt, one grandfather, three cousins and their lovely other halves, plus two little ones
• two sisters missed
• 4 teary-eyed moments
• five seven Starbucks visits
• 1,000 times explaining to the boy that the Hudson is a river and not the ocean
• 1 whale in the NY Harbor (which didn’t help the argument above)
• 1 amazing Broadway Show

And countless other memories.

top of the rock

I had her when I was, um, 20. Cough.

This girl turned 8 a couple of weeks ago. Eight.

I’m having a hard time believing that my baby is eight. And I guess I should admit that she’s not a baby anymore.

Wasn’t she just a toddler yesterday watching Playhouse Disney and Blues Clues?

She’s, like, a girl. A person.

She’s got her own ideas, opinions, and fashion sense. 

I’m just not sure where she gets her independent spirit, her craziness… her character.

But if I find out, I’ll let you know.

How can I argue with that?

“Mommy, why do we have belly buttons?”

“That’s where the umbilical cord was when you were in my belly.”

“You mean someone sewed it on me?”

“No. That’s where it grew when you were growing inside of me. That’s how you got food and oxygen.”

“Why don’t some people have a belly button?”

“Everyone has a belly button.”

“Kyle XY doesn’t have one.”

“Okay, fine… everyone except Kyle XY.”

“Stop it. It’s not funny. Seriously.”

My boy was playing Sinatra, an elder penguin, in his drama club’s performance of “I’ve Got the Music in Me!” (the elementary school version of “Happy Feet”) He was in both casts, which meant we got to see it twice!

Isn’t he the cutest penguin ever?!

Skylar is the one on the far right wearing the fedora. (what do you mean you can’t see him?)

During the show, the group of penguins sang Sing, Sing a Song… which I LOVE. Didn’t they used to sing that on Sesame Street or something? For some reason, that’s where I think I first heard it. It just makes me happy. And it makes me want to sing.

So naturally, when the penguins started singing, so did I.

That’s when my sweet girl said:

“Mommy, stop singing.”

“Why? I like singing… sing out loud, sing out strong!“

“No one else is singing.”

“Yes there are… look back there… don’t worry if it’s not good enough…”

“You’re embarassing me.”

“…just sing, sing a song…“

“Seriously Mommy. Stop it. It’s not funny. SERIOUSLY.”

“… na na na-na na… na na na-na na na…“

Silence.

(she still wasn’t over it during intermission)