Barnes & Noble

Mary Grace had a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble from her birthday. When we went out shopping the other night, we told her that she could choose a book.

She brought back a paperback Barbie Princess book that was only $3.99.

"Honey, this is only four dollars - you have ten! You can afford to get two books like this!" I said, and she scampered off.

A few moments later she came back to BJ and I with a Disney Princess book in her hand. "I chose this book for Claire."

We didn't prompt her. We would've bought Claire a book, anyway, so she didn't go home empty-handed (books are the one thing with which I don't mind spoiling the kids). But Mary Grace noticed that Claire didn't have a gift card, and she got her little sister a book, all on her own.

She has such a kind heart.


(I post this here not to boast, but to record and to remember. Sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed with the difficult moments, and the sweet gestures are so easily forgotten. Why is it that our minds remember the hard days so much more easily than we remember the good days? Is it part of being a mother, or is it just part of life?)

It's My Special Birthday!

My kids are so weird.

One of their favorite games to play, when I leave them alone to play by themselves and make it up as they go along, is "It's Your Special Birthday!" This game, as far as I can tell, consists of making a Lego "cake" (using the lid of the Lego bin as a "cake plate"), and presenting it to each other, while saying, "It's your special birthday!" enthusiastically. Sometimes the cake-maker presents the honoree with her "special birthday" cake, and the honoree ignores the cake-bearer, in which case the "It's your special birthday!" refrain is presented over, and over, and over until the honoree finally blows out her "candles" which are just Lego that are built higher than the level of the cake. Sometimes there's singing.

Well, I guess Claire wants MG to make her a "cake," because right now she's in the toyroom pouting, and saying, "'s mah speshul birfday!" but Mary Grace isn't doing anything about it. Instead I think she's playing, "Let's fill boxes with random assortments of toys, carry them out of the toyroom, and dump them on the floor." Narg.

Mary Grace just said, "Claire, it's not your special birthday, I don't want to play that anymore."

Claire took it surprisingly well.

Princess Turkey

Finally got a picture of the finished project when I dropped the kids off at school today! Awesome, right?

Homeownership Sucks

There are some people who love yard work. My father-in-law loves to mow grass (he has a riding mower. I might love it with a riding mower, too). My mom loves to garden.

I love neither.

But we spent all day yesterday getting the yard ready for winter. Hooray for Grandmother Diana who came down and played with the kids!

Why hasn't anyone invented a leaf-sucker (opposite of leaf blower) that sucks the leaves directly into a garbage bag? I could poke a couple vent holes in the garbage bag, so that I wouldn't just blow it across the yard.

See, we couldn't just blow the leaves to the street because the big leaf sucking truck has already come by this month, and won't be back until early December. So, we had to suck them up and bag them. Yuck.

I have a runny nose and a sore throat from all the dust and (probably) leaf mold. Ugh. No wonder I hate gardening - it literally makes me sick.

But I have to admit, the yard looks a lot better. We have this huge pin oak tree that drops a squajillion leaves every year. And every year I kick myself for wanting an "established" neighborhood with "mature" trees 6 years ago when we bought the house. We could've had a brand new house in what was recently a corn field if I'd been less of a pain in the butt. It would've been a lot easier to care for. And we probably wouldn't have spiders as big as our heads, there, either.

Oh well.

It's a beautiful, unseasonably warm weekend here. BJ's out mowing the back yard (he can suck up the remaining leaves that way - we got most of them a week ago) for the last time this year. It'll be nice to have everything cleaned up and finished.

It's like my mom said, right after we closed on the house. "You know all those people you see at the park on weekends, playing frisbee and relaxing. Those people are called 'renters.'"

You could've told me a little sooner, Mom!

Holiday Gift Idea - Constellation Night Light

Once upon a time, there was a queen. At first she was kind and pleasant, but her two princesses were afraid of the dark. They forced the king and queen to sleep with the bathroom light on, and the queen became wicked because she didn't sleep well and woke up with a headache. The queen was desperate, and so on a trip to the Children's Museum, she purchased one of these:

...a ladybug that projects stars onto the ceiling of the princesses' room. She told the princesses that the stars wouldn't work if they turned on the bathroom light. The princesses totally bought it, and they stopped screaming at the queen to turn the bathroom light on, and fighting over how wide the door's opening should be. Instead they fell asleep peacefully, gazing upon stars of blue, red, and green, and they all slept peacefully ever after.

It also comes in land and sea turtle styles, and seriously, folks, this was the best $30 I ever spent. It times off after 45 minutes. The buttons are big and easy, so if the kids wake up in the middle of the night they can turn him back on without waking me up! I wish we'd gotten this years ago.

You can buy him here. He'd make a great gift for any kid. Or any sleep deprived parent!