Shockingly Easy

Welcome to blogging - my first step was to change the font. I'm an arial person, which should please my four year old since she's an Ariel person. I'm not sure how that happened - both of my daughters are all princess all the time. If I didn't have the stretch marks and inability to jump without peeing as proof, I would have thought they were adopted. Ryan sent Princess Ariel a picture and one of Disneyland's finest cast members sent her an autographed picture of Ariel in return. Ryan's response was to go door to door in our neighborhood and show her friends the picture. After that was done, she sat down and drew a picture for Princess Belle and insists Belle will send something "better" than a picture. One of life's little lessons is about to be learned.

I'm holding out hope that Sammie will drop the princesses in short order once she realizes she is not her sister's clone. Sammie, as diminutive as she is in size, has a big personality. She insists on doing everything herself - if you haven't seen a 2 year old try to put on her own diaper, come on over. It's worth it, unless of course you're in a hurry in which case it's really frustrating. Such Sammie behavior was the inspiration for Ryan, age 4, to say to me, "she's really exasperating, isn't she mom?" I swear I'm not making this up.

I think this afternoon the girls and I are going to make oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. I had to use the promise of said cookie making in order to get Sammie to go to school this morning since Ryan was staying home sick. Nothing like a good sugar bribe to get your kids to acquiese. It works like a charm and it keeps the dentists employed. Luckily my kids enjoy the journey (making the cookies) more than the destination (eating the cookies) which leaves me enjoying the destination by myself. It's a win-win really.

Halloween this year was a treat. Both girls were finally old enough to understand the holiday, to the extent anyone understands dressing up as death, the devil or blood soaked monsters, knocking on doors and asking for candy that is. Ryan dressed up asSnow White (obviously) and Sammie was a cheerleader. After knocking on the door, Sammie would say "twick or tweat" and "gahnk you" and Ryan would say "I picked a good house, huh Sammie? Mom, this house had candy too." I don't understand the parents that dress up their infants and actually trick or treat for candy with them. If you want to dress up the babies and go out with friends or older siblings, I'm all for it. But why does a kid with no teeth and limited digestive ability need candy? I assume the parents eat it but then can't they just go buy the candy if they want it? This is one of life's little mysteries I guess.