Riley and Avery

So I've been put on notice that I haven't blogged in too long. We went to a St. Patrick's Day parade yesterday and I thought it was lame-o. Not enough bagpipes. I never thought I would say "not enough bagpipes" ever in my life, but there simple weren't enough. Mostly Dodge Ram pick-ups with streamers. Like an advertising parade. Riley liked it, though. Avery couldn't see anything. Riley had her first taste of
cotton candy and she said she didn't like it. Too sweet. Then Riley went on a pony ride. She wouldn't go in any of the moon bounce things. Then we started the long walk back to our car.

On the way home, they fell asleep in the car and I decided to treat myself to some
Starbucks. Now, Starbucks is right next to McDonald's. Riley woke up just in time to see thePlayplace and mention that she didn't play on the playground downtown at the parade. So we went in and Riley had a mini ice cream for 27 cents. And then she let loose in theplayplace. After going in the tubes and coming out twice, she goes in again and after a minute I hear from deep inside the maze "I have to go potty."
She tried to find her way out for about ten minutes, then I see peefalling from the playplace and "Mommy, I made an accident." So that was fun.
A couple of days ago I decided that it would be fun to plant seeds with Riley and she picked out marigolds and was really really excited about them. We got a seed starter tray and started planting the marigolds as well as three other packets that I picked out. The marigold sprouted already and are growing like weeds. Even the seeds that were dropped in the tray, not the dirt, are sprouting. A great seed for children. They always sprout and don't take long.

We've been playing outside for most of the day everyday. I'm glad we have an end-unit townhome. We don't really have to go to the park (where I don't really like going on the weekends because it's just crawling with children) we can just take our giant ball out back and have fun. Or Riley can climb the tree in our yard. And we can eat out there. It's nice to have a yard, even if it's still pretty small.

In other news, Riley is a baby pig whose Mommy got eaten my a snake and whose Daddy got eated by a shark, so the baby pig lives with its friends now. Of course, she is a boy pig because she wants a penis.

So Rudi has his eye on a 42" TV for $1200. Wow. I'm trying not to get mad at this whole thing, but we need to buy airline tickets for Amy and Abby, which isn't a problem because we'll buy them with our state tax refund. But we should be saving money so that we can actually do stuff when they're here. And I'm supposed to be saving for two crowns that are going to be $950 each and that I'm supposed to be getting in three months. And I want to go to Maryland to see baby William and go to the beach. Since I start school in the fall, this is pretty much my last chance for a while to have an extended stay in Maryland. I know that television is very important to Rudi , and we can argue day and night over how it shouldn't be that important, that he should paint or write or spend time with his children, but it's really not going to change anything. And anybody knows that whenRudi is miserable, we all are
miserable. So he'll get what he wants. I'll just try to gently sway him in a different direction without him realizing it. I just want it all to be over.Rudi has no concept of money. He thinks that we can afford anything, we just have to save money. But we can't save money if we spend it. He's just like "put $200 in the saving account." Like it's that easy, like we even have a savings account. My absolute favorite is when he came home and said that he'd tried to go to the ATM and the
bank said that we didn't have enough money, so he called me (I was in MD at the time) and told me to put more money in the bank. What? If we had money, wouldn't be in the bank? What am I supposed to do about it? Oh, but it'll be like this for the rest of my life, so I guess I just better get used to it. If there's one thing we know aboutRudi, it's that he's just Rudi and will not ever ever change. Big exhale...

Riley has a hold of the rosewater, which she is spraying liberally in her hair and Avery's hair. So the whole place actually smells pretty good. Since I used the rose water in thepistachio cupcake recipe, it smells like cupcakes to me. Not too bad.

Avery is currently very interested in eating utensils. She wants to use a fork to eat her oranges and peaches. And right now she is using a spoon to eat some soy yogurt, and making a righteous mess. Oh, well. Learning is messy. I should take a picture, but the camera is currently hooked up to the computer downloading pictures...
Ah, this picture was take IMMEDIATELY after bathtime. Oh, yay, what a mess! I try not to hamper their creativity, as long as it's not destructive. So we had to have a mini sponge bath. No problem.

I just realized when going through my loose paperwork and filing them, that I think Riley's school tuition will be about double next year. I think that half-days are for three-year-olds only. That means that she'll have to go three full days next year. Oh man, budget crisis. We'll just have to plan ahead and save some money
(see previous paragraph about us not being able to save money). Of course, I'm jumping the gun here. Maybe she can still go for half days. I just don't want to pay fornaptime. Maybe they don't make four-year-olds nap. Once again, I'm jumping the gun. Riley says that she wants to stay at school all day, but then when we talk about it she gets scared. So I'm all for her going maybe two full days next year, but three may be a bit much. Oh, we'll see. I'll talk to them tomorrow. And since I'm planning on going to school again in the fall, I really have to start thinking about this now. Like what days Riley should be in school so thatRudi can watch Avery and I can go to class, or if I should do some or all of my classes online. Oh, so many decisions and so much planning! Not my forte. Although my stipend under Chapter 35 benefits
will be over $900/month and tuition will be much less than that, so we'll have extra money for Riley's school, or extra money forRudi to take the girls out while I'm in school. It's easier on them to be doing something fun than sitting at home wondering why I'm not there. I'm having diarrhea of the keyboard. Sorry to bore everyone.

Now Avery's using her yogurt-covered finger to pick her yogurt-covered nose. Oh, how obscene!