Funny kidlets

This is what Annie told me as I was putting her to bed last night.

Annie: "I want to see you in my bed when I wake up in the night. I want to see you there, Mom. Do you understand?"

She is a sweet snuggly-bug. When I was at Girl's Camp, I had a hard time falling asleep, especially that first night, because I missed the weight of Annie's head on my shoulder. We call her a tree monkey because she clings to the torso of the person next to her, especially when asleep.

Last week, when Billy & Katharina spent the night, Annie & Katharina shared the pull-out couch. When I walked by them, an hour or so after they fell asleep, I could see that Annie had her arms wrapped around Katharina's knee.

As for my son, well, I have to chuckle at what he must think the internet is ... a magical place where ALL information happily waits to be summoned. While preparing a bug report for his Boys' Book Club, we googled for some pictures and facts on the creature of his choice. When our first search didn't turn up much on African fat-tailed scorpions, Graham clarified the search terms.

Graham: "We need to type, 'Why aren't vigaroons a true scorpion?', Mom. Just look it up on the computer. Just type 'Why aren't vigaroons,' no, wait, 'Why aren't giant vigaroons a true scorpion?' and also type 'All arachnids, arthropods, insects and crustaceans'."

Me: We're not going to get anything from that.

Graham: "Just type 'All social insects of every kind.' I want to see them."

Good news on TV

Kyle was watching a sporting event ... something on NBC or a sister network, I guess, and I happened to notice the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen. Usually, that scrolling text comes off as inane to me, a total waste of scrolling space. It always reads like, "Breaking news. Britney Spears throws Doritos at L.A. paparazzi after an US Weekly launch party dust-up outside Kitson. Stay tuned for comment from Spears' attorney."

+

Not this time.

Instead, the following message scrolled forth: "It's official. Steve Carell has signed on to do at least three more seasons of 'The Office'."


Now who's throwing Doritos in the air?

Or Munchos, come to think of it.

The bottom of the barrel

I haven't uploaded any cute kid photos yet this week, yet I want to keep my blog, uh, going.

So here' something fun to chew on.

I recently rediscovered these in a convenience store.



My wonderful friend Becca has a *Bex Dislixe* section on her Renfroescoop blog that I adore. (Let me clarify - I adore the list AND the blog.) I guess I would have to put these in my Lixe list!

I haven't seen/tasted/heard of/thought of Munchos for ... decades. Yet the melt-y taste of these Potato Crisps, "A Light Tasting Crispy Snack!", took me right back to the other time I ate them, probably at a gas station somewhere in Minnesota. Those were the days of light-tasting snacks. (I love the qualifier - it's as though Frito Lay can't legally call them light snacks, in light of the excessive fat/sodium/preservatives found on the ingredient list.)

My birthday (last week)

This is a week late ... but I wanted to say THANKS one hundred times over for the thrilling tributes done by my dearest sisters on their blogs ... theyodelingyoungquists and marnithan. I was deeply touched and plan to frame the wonderful words (some true, some sweetly imagined).

That's what sisters are for!

I was actually at our stake Girl's Camp that week (shuttling back and forth between camp and my Blinn classes with windblown hair), and felt celebrated there too. I share my birthday with one of the (new) Laurels in our ward, so everyone knew June 19 was a special day. One girl even shared some cheese crackers from her private camp snack stash. Wow. Thanks. The YW decorated my bunk with fun signs they had made and signed. A kind woman named Joyce picked up a cake for us (me & Mary) and my camp secret sister gave me a darling stuffed frog that Annie promptly claimed as her own when I returned from camp.

Some of you know that Kyle's birthday is June 20. The back-to-back birthday arrangement has always made it easy to remember to par-tay. And we did (in the loose sense of the word) on June 21 with a delicious (and pricey! Hello $27.01 for a cake) mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery.

Kyle & the kids gave me the new Coldplay album for my birthday. I admit it - I got hooked on the iTunes ad for the title song, "Viva La Vida". The rest of the album is great. The kids keep requesting track #1 (the instrumental "Life in Technicolor") because, in their words, "It's pretty!" (Annie) but "It's still rock and roll, like I like" (Graham).

Shoes on

Usually it takes many, many reminders before Annie & Graham put on their shoes in the morning. Many, many reminders. Sometimes, on school mornings, Graham would still be putting on his shoes as we drove up in front of the school.

This morning, I asked Graham and Annie to get their shoes on. I told them where the shoes were but did not hand the shoes to them. I left the room to take care of something else. When I returned, I cranked up the same old lecture: "Kiddos, you need to get your shoes on now!"

"But Mom," they said, "Our shoes are on." They both kicked up their feet so that I could see the proof.

Lo & Behold - The Shoes. Were. On.

One reminder. Wow! I did a little happy dance.

Makeup

Annie loves make-up. She loves to put on make-up by herself. Sometimes she digs in my drawer and uses up my cosmetic products. Other times, she uses what she has: markers, crayons and paint. Sometimes she even pretends to want to kiss me out of love but then smooches just for the lip gloss rub-off.

We found a book at Half-Price Books with a set of tiny make-up pencils and tissue-paper pages ready to be made up. This was a fun book ... until Annie used up the tiny pencils on herself.

Today she said, "Mom, when do I get to wear make-up for real?"


I tried to think of when I got to wear make-up (some blue eyeshadow from the Avon catalog, I remember): "Twelve, I think."

No, wait! What have I said? Twelve is too young!

"When you're fourteen you can wear make-up out of the house."
"And I can do it by myself without asking you first?" she asked, hopefully.
"Yes, that sounds right," I replied.

She skipped away saying, "Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen."

The upside of this is that she is motivated to do things if the reward relates to make-up, i.e. if you pick up the toys on the floor, I'll let you put on some eyeshadow.

Please don't judge me!

Dead Poet's Society

This is another classic favorite o'mine. This movie, like "Stargate" for Courtney, combines several of my interests/affections/aspirations: teaching, poetry, boarding schools, the 1950s, and when I was a teenager, cute boys (Knox Overstreet!) in suitcoats.

Oh Captain, my Captain!

On rewatching, I find the suicide a tad bit improbable (more of an impetuous teen gesture than a realistic event for that character), but the movie still touches my heart!

Carpe Diem, indeed.