The Bobby Pin

Meet my new arch nemesis:

the bobby pin.

Why you ask would such a simple, unassuming hair gadget be such the bane of my existence? It seems that Sophie, Hannah, Mia & Bella have all taken to using these in their hair - every day. We use them to pin our bangs back, to pin various pieces of hair back and sometimes, I think, just to stick them in our hair for fun.

Here is the problem, they end up EVERYWHERE except back from whence they came. Mostly they seem to end up sticking out of the carpet. That's fun. Fun to be walking across and nearly impale yourself on a bobby pin and walk not even 6 more feet and do it again. But my personal favorite is vacuuming, which now feels somewhat like vacuuming a land mine. Bobby pins randomly shooting out of the vacuum at warp speed, hitting various body parts and even the dogs! I now need full body armor to get this chore done and if the dogs weren't afraid of the vacuum before, you should see them run now!

So, here I find myself making a ridiculous statement:

"if I find one more bobby pin laying around, you are all cut off from their use indefinitely!"

Our Spirited Child

I met with Mia's teacher today to discuss my "spirited child, with a zest for life." Her teacher could not sing her praises enough {not necessarily academic praises, but rather, those of her "exuberant personality"}! Below is just one example that she presented me with to illustrate this point. "I can just hear the expression in her voice as she tells me what she's going to write!"

Mrs. Salisbury exclaimed.

"My gosh! I'm looking at a rainbow!"

Other fine statements that Mia has apparently made in class that further illustrate her zest for life:
To her friend when he said something Mia found funny: "Oh Lance, you're just a big pile of cuteness!"

About her father when the kindergartners were discussing their dad's various hair styles:
John: "Well my dad doesn't have any hair."
Mia: "Oh yeah, well, my dad looks Mexican because his hair is really dark and he has a lot of it!"

Oh spirited child, what did we do before you entered our lives?

Mia's Readying Herself for Kindergarten

Each year Grandma takes the girls birthday shopping on their birthday. This year, one of the gifts that Mia chose while birthday shopping {and perhaps the most beloved} was a dinosaur sandwich cutter and a matching dinosaur sandwich box. Since making this purchase she has perfected the fine art of sandwich making and insists that she would like to save these sandwiches for when she goes to Kindergarten. I have tried convincing her that Kindergarten doesn't start for quite some time and the sandwiches would be yucky by then and each time she states the same thing "I'm making this sandwich for when I go to Kindergarten." I guess I can be thankful that she is finally accepting the fact that she is going to Kindergarten next year and that she won't be staying home with me forever...

My Daily Dose of Parenting

Today I got to go to Sophie's school {at her request} and view the 'puberty' video with her. When the note came home two weeks ago, she begged me not to sign it attempting to convince that she knew what she needed to know and did not need to be subjected to the embarrassment of having to view this video with her peers. Of course, I said, you don't know the half of it and you are going to watch it. So today was the big day and she was sweating bullets over this and asked if I would go with her. Let's just cut to the chase...Sophie, who thought she knew everything, nearly fell off her chair. It started off pleasant enough - talking about the importance of good hygiene during which Sophie proclaimed, "her dogs could use a lesson in hygiene!" Then we get to good ole' menstruation and the subsequent question regarding how babies are made asked by some innocent soul in her class. The school nurse, gave a very glossed over, talk to your parents kind of answer, but did elude to the fact that it takes a boy and a girl to do so. Fast forward to this afternoon when Sophie gets of the bus and asks me "So let me get this straight, you HAVE to "be" with a boy to have a baby?" I answer, "yes." Sophie answers, "Um, I am adopting all of my kids!"

Good, that's what we want to hear...at least for a good 10-12 more years!