halloween happenings

Back in January I said I was going to blog more frequently. I've only blogged twice in the last eight days so it's safe to say that goal is not being achieved.

On Thursday I took Annabelle to the shoe store. I rarely buy clothes for her when she's with me because it's so much easier to do it alone. Beyond her Minnie Mouse rain boots and wanting to wear dresses she hasn't voiced much of an opinion about clothes. Picking out her clothes myself is a train I intended to ride as far as the track will take me. I mentioned she would need new sneakers soon and she said she wanted light up shoes. She was very specific about which kind of light up shoes so we went together. She wanted light up shoes with characters on the side. I found a Frozen pair in her size but she didn't want Frozen characters. Is her Frozen obsession coming to an end? Has the earth started to rotate in the opposite direction? Next we tried on Paw Patrol shoes and she liked them but said she "didn't like them enough so let's look at the other shoe store." After the third pair (lights but no characters) didn't meet her approval we went to Target. There we found a pair that her friend at school has and she fell in love with them. They do not have any characters on the side. The fact that we could have bought non-character shoes at the first store and called it a day is not lost on me. 

That might be the most boring paragraph I have ever written in my life but it does have a point. The point is I went to Target. I seldom go to Target but I found myself there twice in one day. While perusing the shoe and pullup aisles I came across a lion costume. I haven't yet nailed down what I'll be for halloween but a lion is within the right theme. That is how I found myself trying a lion onesie costume in the Target dressing room. If you thought I was going to try it on in the middle of the pajama/lingerie section for all to see you haven't been around here long enough. 

I think the socks are the perfect touch.

Listen. I'm not proud of how I look in either of these pictures but I need you to know exactly what I'm dealing with in the costume department. I have 18 hours before I have to be wearing a costume at trunk or treat so I need to decide on something asap. This Halloween business it too much. I need to go back to not acknowledging the day even exists. 

In other Halloween news, why do preschool moms go all out for every holiday? When I brought AB to MDO today I went by countless parents with highly decorated cookies, fruit wrapped in dough to look like mummies and containers of playdough with pipe cleaner spider legs glued on top. You know what I brought to the party? Apple cider. I signed up to bring apple slices for tomorrow's party and am feeling the pressure to cut them out with a cookie cutter in the shape of a pumpkin. I love a good celebration but it never occurred to me that I needed to bring personalized gifts for everyone in the class on Halloween. I save my classroom creativity for Christmas and Valentines. 

My costume is not be finalized but Annabelle will be wearing her tiger costume to MDO tomorrow. The glue might still be wet from the final gluing tonight but she'll be rocking her fancy light up sneakers.

I'm praying there's no video footage of my performance

Three days later I'm here to report that I survived the ladies retreat. Praise the Lord for He continues to work miracles. 

I drove up with two girls from church whose children are friends of Annabelle's from Sunday school. They're sisters in law and best friends who gave me the scoop on who's who and what's what. I always love hearing the scoop. We got there right as dinner was starting and I felt so awkward. I didn't know where to stand or what to do. Most of the ladies there have been going to this church for years and I was the new kid on the block but they welcomed me in.

As a general rule I don't enjoy ice breaker games that involve some kind of performance. The younger half of the planning committee decided we should do a lip sync competition. NO THANK YOU. Unfortunately it was mandatory participation. I was in a group with a very outgoing girl which I thought would be our ticket to winning. I don't enjoying performing but I am competitive so I wanted to win. She picked a song from Mulan because "it's energetic and exciting and we can really get into it." Turns out she and one other girl were the only ones who got into it. Three of us didn't know the song so we stood there looking like idiots. Someone grabbed sticks for us to use as props which we used to fake fight with each other. It was a mess. There were five teams competing and we got honorable mention aka last place.

A lady spoke about unity and shared some good tidbits which I immediately butchered when I tried to share them with Christopher. Twice on Saturday we formed groups and prayed aloud. NEED I MENTION AGAIN MY DISLIKE OF PRAYING IN A GROUP. About forty women were in attendance and by my quick calculations, 98% were crying. Thank goodness there weren't any men in attendance. A room full of crying women is every man's nightmare. The second time we gathered for prayer it took our group 8 minutes (I timed it) to decide how to pray. Would we pray for the person to our right? To our left? Were we praying for the women at the retreat or whatever we felt led to pray for? Should one person pray for all of us? Should those who don't like praying aloud be allowed to skip this portion of the weekend? Did everyone find out that Amy's cat was hit by a car? Is Amy going to get a replacement cat? Should we pray for Amy about the passing of Ricky? Should every other person pray? Should we start praying since the other groups are already done? Again, it was a man's nightmare. 

We made crafts, played games until late into the night and went zip lining. I'm glad I worked up the courage to go because I did enjoy it, but I was peopled out by the time I got home. The only people I need are the two who live in my house. 

Friday five

1. Tonight I'm attending a ladies retreat with church. Raise your hand if this shocks you. I'm raising my hand higher than anyone.

It goes without saying that I don't generally sign myself up for events with people I don't know, but I'm trying to make more friends at church. I've tried coming up with many MANY reasons to say home but none were legit enough. Apparently needing to be around in case the ice maker breaks isn't a good enough reason.

I've spent nights away from Annabelle before but I still get nervous about it. Parenthood has not been good for my anxiety. I told Annabelle I was going anyway for a while and I would miss her. She patted the back of my head and said, "It's ok, Mom. You'll have lots of fun. Me and Daddy will see you when you get back." She then gave me kisses and hugs to bring with me. She also gave me two stuffed animals, along with their bag of food. She wanted to give me six but I didn't have the room. 

This meme rings as true as ever. I packed four pairs of earrings.  

2. Annabelle has started wearing her rainboots and whistle everywhere we go. We went on a Mommy Sesame date to Dunkin Donuts this morning and she insisted on wearing them both. We drove the extra seven minutes to the DD where my friend works and she gave us a free munchkin. (It's really paid off to have a friend in management at DD. Not that I'm in the friendship for the free products but they are a nice bonus.) We went to the little zoo (aka the pet store) where Annabelle "blew a little tune" for the animals. I'm sure the mice really appreciated it.

3. I am not a fan of halloween. I love dressing AB up but other than that I wouldn't mind if it was removed from the calendar. For months AB said she wanted to be a butterfly for halloween. She was a butterfly last year and everything still fit so I was happy for her to pick such a low effort costume. Several weeks ago she decided to be a tiger which has required several trips to Joann's and lots of fabric cutting. Christopher said he'd join her and be a bear. Our church is having a trunk or treat and asked people to sign up as trunk decorators. I wasn't planning on dressing up at all but I didn't want to look like the Halloween Scrooge of the family. I decided we could do a jungle themed trunk and I could be a safari guide/zookeeper. Subtle yet participatory. Christopher thinks I should be this instead.

So long, subtle costume. Not only would I stand out like someone riding an inflatable elephant, I'd have to worry about not breaking the fan as I chase down a small tiger.

4. Several months ago we had our neighborhood cookout. Cathleen the tattooed from four houses down brought a container of yellow watermelon. I meant to return the container to her the following week but I forgot. Somehow it ended up on top of the refrigerator holding chip clips, a screwdriver, glasses from the eclipse and army sunglasses. I remembered about the container only when it fell on my head. It's been so long since the cookout it feels weird to return it now. Maybe I'll return it while disguised as an elephant rider.

5. How many times can a three year old call for her mother during quiet time? The answer is 12. 

perfect planning doesn't always pay off

You know how sometimes you get a song stuck in your head and nothing makes it go away? That's how it was for my Friday night, except it was a phrase that kept repeating in my dreams. "Perfect prior planning prevents poor performance." Over and over and OVER. If something went wrong in the dream, a voice would say "you could have prevented that poor performance." It was beyond annoying and I couldn't stop it, no matter how much I tried.

We didn't get to pick strawberries or blueberries this summer so I've been determined we make it to the pumpkin patch. We had a lengthy to-do list for Saturday but I penciled in pumpkin patching for the afternoon. My friend told me about a farm where we could pick pumpkins off the stems, not just out of a giant bucket. It was over half an hour away but I thought the experience would be worth it. I had done the perfect prior planning so I didn't expect any poor performance from the farm.

It felt wrong to pick pumpkins when it was 75* and we were wearing sandals! I actually started sweating. AB brought her Easter basket and insisted on trying to stuff too large pumpkins in it. 

The farm was free but we to buy tickets to the hayride. While we waited for the hayride to come back around Annabelle played in the corn kernels and took advantage of the free face painting. Face painting is the way to her heart.

Thanks to my prior planning I knew we had at least an hour to pick pumpkins and play in the hay maze before the farm closed. Twelve minutes after arriving a man walked around telling everyone they were closing in five minutes. FIVE MINUTES. All my research said they were open until 8. Christopher pointed out to a worker that the website and the sign said as much, but she said "that's for the farm down the road, not us." Because that makes sense. Put the information for another business on your sign. We didn't get the hayride. We didn't have time to go back and pick pumpkins but I grabbed a few from the store as we were being herded out. We had to wrap things up quickly and I was somewhat in a huff about it, but Annabelle had fun and we'll visit another patch in coming weeks. 

We painted our pumpkins last night. I recommend painting pumpkins over carving them by 1000%. Guess which one of us spent precious time painting sprinkles on a doughnut pumpkin that will rot in two weeks. Hint- it wasn't Christopher.

be careful when you wish for excitement

The problem with saying you have nothing interesting going on is that something might happen and you end up wishing nothing had happened. 

Ask me how I know.

Annabelle was wearing big girl bottoms this morning as she often does. She acts as if they're a diaper but I continue putting them on her so she doesn't forget that she's supposed to be potty training. She had an accident which I cleaned up. Then she had another. Ten minutes later she had another. I kept the paper towels and cleaner out after the first accident because I've learned a thing or two in my three months of the Potty Training Trial of 2017. I was frustrated about something I don't even remember now so I went upstairs to regroup. Suddenly I heard yelling and crying from the living room.

Annabelle was trying to clean her little potty but instead sprayed herself in the face with the clorox bleach cleaner I accidently left out.

By the time I got downstairs her eyes and nose were swollen and red. She was screaming so hysterically I could barely wash her eyes out. She was squeezing her eyes shut and I didn't think any water gone in. I gave her a cool facecloth to hold against her eyes but she didn't want to. She kept screaming and crying. She is not much of a crier and definitely not a screamer so I knew she was in a lot of pain. I wasn't quite sure if it warranted a trip to the doctors so I called Christopher and he said to take her to urgent care. As I put her shoes on she sniffled and said, "I fink I'm going to need something to help me remember this day." As if the gray hairs I got today won't remind me.

We drove to the pediatric urgent care with AB crying the whole way and saying she couldn't see. I gave her Mr Lion which was a real treat since he's gone extinct over the last few months. The urgent care was closed. Why? Who closes their urgent care? I had to find another urgent care which meant more time hearing her scream. Thankfully there was another right down the road. As I was checking her in she asked the receptionist if she was being a good patient. The receptionist said she was and gave her a little bag with coloring books, stickers and a pencil. She held onto the pencil for dear life the entire time we were there.

The doctor said her eyes didn't look too bad but they did need to be washed out more. It took three of us to hold her down while he flushed them out. It was HORRIBLE. Even though it was an accident I felt SO SO bad for leaving the cleaner out and seeing her scream and try to get away from the doctor made it 10 times worse.

I rewarded us for surviving the experience with ice coffee and doughnuts. When she went down for a nap I lay on the couch and stared at the ceiling. It took me awhile to recover. 

Me at 1:58PM

Thankfully she's ok now. Her little eyes are still red but she's back to talking 480 miles an hour like her normal self. She gave me a hug and thanked me for taking care of her. Hopefully tomorrow will be more hugs and less tears! 

Currently- according to Annabelle*

* with help from my editor

Watching: Baby Einstein, Toy Story and Sarah and Duck. Do you yike the new Toy Story or the old Toy Story?

Eating: Yogurt is my favorite. I don't yike olives. I yike peas, corn, and rice with peanut butter. I mean soy sauce! That's so funny. Rice with soy sauce! 

Reading: One Morning In Maine and Blueberries for Sal. At night I line up all my friends in bed and tell them we're going to Buck's Harbor, just like they do in the book.

Talking about: Japan, stingrays, soccer, what I want to be for Halloween, washing machines, the map of the world that's round and talks about America (a globe). I yike to talk about crafts.

Planning: my garden next year. It will be a flower garden with seeds, carrots, coconuts and potatoes. 

Earning: monies for my turtle bank. I dust the living room and do big chores. I clean the house. Sometimes I ask for monies after I make my bed but I don't get any. 

Going to: school.  I yike the songs and the toys. I yike riding in the cars on the playground, crawling in the caterpillar and eating snacks. We sing the snack song and munch, munch eat a yittle bit. We dress the frog picture in his clothes for the day. I do his sunglasses and it's so funny!

Favorite thing about Mommy: playing with her. 

little memories, September 2017

I been recovering from Sunday for the last two days and totally forgot about my little memories post for September.

Sunday we went to church as usual. Generally AB goes to her Sunday school and we go to ours, but this week Christopher went to new members meeting and I went to a new volunteers meeting. We did the dreaded "go around the room and say your name, etc" ice breaker game which I hate. It makes me sweat and forget simple things like my name or my favorite movie. In the evening we went to a going away party for a family from MOPS. I reconnected with a friend who's husband is stationed at Fort Drum and had so much fun comparing notes on our favorite parts of the post and the who's who of the FRG. After that we went to a Bible study with church friends. For those doing the math at home, that's three social events in one day. We were peopled out.

I LOVE people. I love knowing everyone's birthdays, hobbies and the names of all their family members. I love hearing about their friends and what they like to do. I remember it all and it truly brings me joy. The problem is when I'm forced to interact with a hundred people in one day and be friendly and smiley to everyone. Sometimes it is very difficult to be me.

* We've been working on Annabelle writing the letter A. She could do it for a while but she's gotten lazy and it ends up being an H. Christopher said he'd help her and I think he might have thought he could work a miracle in her penmanship. It still looks like an H but they were so cute together.

* We went on a special family date for milkshakes. It was a Big Deal.

* This isn't one of my better photos, but I love it anyway. We brought the castle out to the Hundred Acre Woods and played camping princess and ate popsicles. Fun was had by all until the smallest princess bailed in favor of playing "the camping game wif showers and dryers and scrubbers."  The bigger princess was not a fan of that game.

* Overall I'm not a huge fan of our town. It's fine, but I wouldn't cry a river if we were told to leave tomorrow. In my top two favorite places in town are the flower shop and the gas station with free car vacuums. I consider those the highlights. We do have some pretty walking trails and sometimes views like this make me think it's isn't so bad here. 

 * Annabelle is skeptical about my efforts to take more pictures together. 

 * I had to run out to Payless on Saturday night to buy AB new church shoes. The first thing she said when I showed her was, "Wow! Those are so fabulous!" The instant she woke up the next morning she said, "Where are my fabulous shoes? Don't forget to put them on me! They're fabulous!" That night I went in to check on her and she had gotten her church socks and the fabulous shoes out of the drawer and fallen asleep with them on.