Riley and Avery

You know, I really need to get a digital camera. It would make this uploading photos thing much easier. I was fairly confident that Rudi was going to get me one for Christmas, but now we've decided not to get each other anything and spend the money on the kids. I guess the lack of current photos will just deepen the surprise when we get to Maryland.

Sunday was my last day at Starbucks. I'm not sure that I'll miss it, but maybe I will. I really liked working there and I liked my co-workers, but it just wasn't good for my family. Riley's happy. Avery doesn't care, or doesn't know that she should care. Whatever. Rudi's happy, and said that if I ever just need time to myself, I could leave the kids with him for a couple of hours. At least he's trying to keep me mentally healthy, in theory.

Riley's attitude is really developing. I don't know how else to say it without putting a negative or positive spin on it. I sometimes am offended by her tone, but I am also glad that she's not some wallflower. I guess I have to take the good with the bad. She adds the attitudinal "a" on the end of sentences now, for emphasis. I gave her an ice cube tray (she's an ice nazi, always must have ice) and she wanted to fill it up, so I decided to make it a Montessori activity and I filled a bowl with water and gave her a medicine dropper, and had her fill the tray. I told her to fill them all the way up, otherwise we won't be able to get the ice out of the tray. So she says "If I fill it all the way up-a, it will overflow-a!" Sometimes it's cute, sometimes annoying.

Speaking of Riley-tude, her behavior has really gotten out of hand. I really don't know what to do with her, but I know that what we're doing is not working. She's such a perfect little angel at school, and a complete devil at home. She's always so darn busy. I guess I really have to step up the number of activities that I do with her. But she has a way of spoiling all of them. And then I get mad that I cared enough to even try. I think today I am going to go to Joanns and get a whole lot of felt and make a felt story-board, and cut out characters from her favorite stories and some extra so that she can create her own stories. I think that we have some extra particle board so I can make a fairly large story board. Ugh, she's really driving me crazy.

We had a playdate planned with Lorelai from school. I called her mother last night and we talked again this morning to firm up our plans. Then I found out that she's a staunch Republican, and I thought "what have I gotten myself into?" But if we talk about our kids and parenting and such, I don't see why there would be a problem. We don't have to talk about politics. Lorelai is Riley's best friend and she also has a younger brother who is almost exactly Avery's age. They had a really busy day scheduled and we managed to miss each other at the park. We'll try again another time, unless she was turned off by my being a Democrat...Hmmm

Yah for Democracy!! Isn't it great? I fell asleep really early, grappling with the kids not sleeping and finally we all crash. So I didn't hear of the early returns. So I woke up to a whole new delightful world this morning. Whichever way you lean, it's fairly obvious that Bush is responsible for his party's demise. The public has spoken and the public is sick of Bush and his cronies and have no faith in his leadership, his policies, and his handling of Iraq. So there. I voted against an ammendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman, but it passed. I also voted for an ammendment giving domestic partnership benefits to gay couples, but that failed. Oh well, you can't win them all. People can have whatever opinion they want about gay marriage, I don't care, but I don't think that discrimination should be written into any constitution, state or federal. Enough on politics. None of it really matters in the long run anyway. Rudi couldn't vote because he doesn't have Colorado citizenship yet, but that's a whole 'nuther debacle...