Saturdays

QOTD #349

Gracie: "I'm drawing a picture of Tater with tears on his face because he'll never find love." Wow. Pre-K burn!

Big Sister

Tater came out and told Sean that he couldn't fall asleep last night because he was having bad dreams. He was scared of part of a VeggieTales movie we had watched (seriously?). I came home from yoga and heard Gracie singing in their room. She was singing to her brother to make him feel better. She sang a song from their chapel at school and then I heard her pray and my mama heart swelled. She was asking God to keep them safe and for Tate not to be scared anymore.
After she said amen, he asked for another story. She sighed and said she thought another song was better than another story, but "let me get a hat on first." I smiled and continued to eavesdrop outside their door for another 10 mintues, reporting to daddy from time to time what our sweet girl was singing about.

Just the other day we were talking about splitting them up soon, big girl and boy rooms for everyone. But these are the moments that give me pause. How special their relationship is now and these nighttime rituals they are developing are not for me to disrupt. Not just yet. There will be enough time for "No Boys Allowed" signs hung from bedroom doors. I want to cultivate their frienship as long as I can.
Tater told me that she has been teaching him ballet at night and that sometimes she sings him a lullaby that talks about it being sunny the next day and how they will play together, how she loves him and that it's time to go to sleep now.

She may only be 3 minutes older, but I've never been more proud of our big sister.

Further Proof

that my kids aren't ready to be unsupervised for any amount of time.

Bag of candy hearts I left in the living room was dumped into a plastic container, filled with water, then dumped into the sink and put back in the container. Gracie was trying to discourage the boys from eating my candy. Benny assured me, "it still tastes good mama!"
Um, gross.

Also found: Lightning McQueen bubble maker filled with hand sanitizer in the bathroom. Beta fish moved by (sticky) hand to the same fish bowl.

We are to blame I guess, trying to get an extra 20 minutes of "sleep" staying in bed and thinking they were old enough to play with their toys in the living room alone. Rookie mistake.

Here We Go Again-book club

“Every high school has a Lissy Ryder. You might have known her as the Prom Queen. The Mean Girl. The Bitch. Lissy Ryder spent her teen years making yours miserable. But you escaped her. And even though you went to college, grew up, and got a life, every now and then you wonder if that thing called ‘karma’ ever comes for the Lissy Ryders of the world.
Rest assured it does.”

I got to read Jen Lancasters new book for Blogher Book Club this month and I was so glad for some no thinking necessary, chick lit. I have been marching through The Game of Thrones series for months and this was the light and quick read I needed to refresh. The story is basically a chance at redemption for the book's classic mean girl, Lissy Ryder. We'd all like to think that the mean girls we know would behave differently given 20 years and some perspective on high school, but Lissy doesn't buckle so easily. The book is cute, sometimes annoying when you have to listen to her drone on and on, but overall, its a solid beach or nap time read. It's good for a few laughs and to pass on to your high school BFF.

Check out the Blogher forum on it here!

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Tater on Taters

At dinner:
T: I can't eat these mashed potatoes, daddy. Daddy: Why not? T: They are just too blonde. Us: ? T: You know like mushy and don't taste good. Me: Do you mean BLAND?! T: YES! They are bland, so I can't eat your mashed potatoes daddy.

How does he even know that word exists let alone how to use it to insult Sean's cooking?! We were too impressed to make him eat them.

R.I.P.

Every winter our boiler breaks (because the house we rent is old and the boiler is even older). It can get pretty chilly while we wait for a repair man and Monday it got down to 52 degrees in here! Sadly, that was too cold for Grandpa Ron (not to be confused with our actual grandpa). Tate's little beta friend died. I actually saw him floating oddly in the morning, but he wasn't belly up on top so I thought he was just hiding from me. I had Sean look at him at dinner and he quickly recognized it. I felt dumb, but I guess they can sink too.

We called Tate over and told him that Grandap Ron had died because it was too cold. This was a really tough conversation to have with no preparation. Sean wanted to show him the body, I wanted to hide it. I said the fish went to heaven, Sean said it would go down the toilet into the ocean and "be happy there". Hmmmm, never thought through our fish theology before. It took Tate a minute to grasp what we meant, he kept saying we just need to feed him more and he will come back alive. Poor buddy. Then he cried. I actually shed a couple of secret tears myself. Not for the fish obviously I've been wishing them dead for awhile , but my heart just hurts for our little guy experiencing his first loss. Gracie and Benny were pretty sweet to him at first, although they kept saying he's DEAD, he DIED over and over. Finally, Gracie and Tate were talking and decided that if all three fish die they will "EARN A DOG!!!"
Huh? Not sure where that came from, and we told them that wasn't how it works, but they are pretty sure. I think they think it will be gifted to them from the pet fairy or something and 3 dead fish=one live puppy.
I suspect poor Molly and Tutu may have some kind of tragic "accident" soon if we aren't careful.