Riley and Avery

So we went to the Uncle Wilber fountain grand opening a couple of days ago. We really had a blast. Riley was a little nut-so in her playing and I couldn't catch a good picture of her. She played hard and burned out early. Riley was pretty much done, cuddling in a towel on Daddy's lap, before Avery even warmed up to the water. Avery really loved it and didn't want to go. She still asks every day if we're going to the "water fountain". I'll have to take her back before we leave for Maryland. Funny thing is that since Riley doesn't like water on her face, I was sitting right next to the fountain with a hand towel to dry her face as needed. Well, I became known as the mother-with-the-hand-towel and several toddlers would regularly run to me to dry them off. Of course, no day out at Acacia Park would be complete without the healthy smattering of winos, crackheads, white trash, and the habitually unclean. But no biggie.

So, Avery is really diggin' the Playmobil stuff. Not the people, they don't interest her at all. But the microscopic animals? Fun stuff! Seriously, her absolute favorite are the little mice. She carries them around everywhere. She loses them everywhere. I look for, and so far find them, everywhere. Including our front yard. A miracle if I've ever seen one. Anyway, we walked over to the local over-priced independently-owned toy store while visiting Uncle Wilber and she scored a set of guinea pigs. Now I have to keep track of four baby mice (why, oh why, did I excitedly tell her that I found a fourth mouse when vacuuming our bedroom? She didn't even know a fourth mouse existed! What's wrong with me?), two baby rabbits, and five (yes, five) guinea pigs. In a basket. I was carrying the basket up to the bedroom and she said "Don't spill it, Mom. Be careful!" I told her that I was being very careful and demonstrated to her how I was holding the basket. She told me "No, do this!" and cupped her right hand over her left palm. If only she were so careful about not spilling, say, her fourth cup of cranberry juice in one day. The orange guinea pig is her favorite.




Ah, yes. In other news, Rudi was put on insulin today. One shot in the stomach per day. Yesterday he asked me to help him find a bag with a handle because he had to bring all his meds in for his appointment today. I was like "whhhhhhy? Are they planning to put you on insulin?" He said that he didn't care because he wouldn't do insulin. Well, he came home from his appointment with a whole case of insulin. I was like "well, are you going to do it?" He said that he had a bowl of raspberries last night around 11pm, took his diabetes medication at 5 am and when he went to the doctor at 8:30 am his blood sugar was well over 300. So he agrees with the insulin. The doctor had him inject water into his stomach to practice and he said that it was doable. It's unfortunate that he's on insulin now, but if it gets his diabetes under control, he'll be around that much longer. Who knows, perhaps having his blood sugar under control (for the first time since I've known him) he'll be able to lose weight. Perhaps he won't sleep as much (may be wishful thinking there).

Today was Riley's last day of school. When I picked her up, as usual, I cleared out her cubby of all the art work she had done that day, including a beautiful picture on hot pink paper of two figures and a rainbow. Then I went out on the playground to take her home. She said that the pink picture was for Hunter who is moving. She went and gave it to him. It was so cute!

Just a note to myself: I MUST buy a globe! Riley keeps asking about the top of the world, the bottom of the world, and where we live on it. I usually totally miss the boat on these educational opportunities.

OMG, I know, right? Look at those long arms! What's up with that? I've always thought something was up since the sleeves on all my shirts are a few inches too short. Rudi measured my arm span, and sure enough, each arm is about 2+ inches longer than they should be. How did that happen? Now all I can think about is my praying mantis arms...

So this is what I came home to after running down to the college for a bit to finalize my financial aid paperwork and such for my summer classes:

A prime example of attentive parenting, right? Rudi was sleeping on the couch. She's a black cat, obviously.

Today we are going to the opening of the Uncle Wilber fountain downtown. The girls are beyond excited. I told Riley yesterday that we were going and asked her if she remembered the grand opening last year when we went. She ran off and got a wooden nickel that we had gotten last year to "buy" ice cream and rides on the moon bounce. I couldn't believe that she remembered the wooden nickels. I certainly didn't remember them.

Anyway, I went to Old Navy yesterday to score the girls new bathing suits. I had them try them on when they came home (they were out with Rudi) and Avery's suit is beyond cute! Rudi couldn't get over it. He really likes her suit. She looks so tiny in it, though. When I put her suit on Avery asked "We goin mimmin?" I said not yet, and she was upset, but she wanted to wear her swimming suit to bed. No prob.

Speaking of super-cute Avery, we went to the Golden Corral for delicious artery-clogging comfort food. Although I cook from fresh at home, Rudi can't seem to get rid of his comfort food cravings. Anyway, I caved and agreed to go. Well, everywhere we went people were stopping me to tell me how adorable Avery was. One elderly woman just couldn't stop gushing over her. As her table was near ours, I could overhear her talking about Avery all through her dinner. I don't know if anyone is familiar with "Malcolm in the Middle," but Cloris Leachman has a reoccurring role as the one-legged eastern-European grandmother. This elderly woman had the same exact accent. And there was a mother and pre-teen daughter sitting in the booth behind us and they kept commenting on Avery, talking amongst themselves about how cute she is. Not to mention the old men that kept coming by our table to fawn over Avery. And I'm thinking "Is Riley invisible?" I eventually started to get offended. Riley is a perfectly beautiful little girl. I don't get it.

Riley and her prize rocks. I don't know what it is with her and rocks.

This is Avery pouting for some reason or another. I've forgotten now. Still cute!
Unfortunately, Avery's hair is all messed up in this picture. I didn't notice it until later. Poo.

So, to change things up a bit, instead of going into the mountains today, we decided to go to the high plains. We heard of a neat spot called The Paint Mines Interpretive Park north east of the Springs and decided to check it out. We arrived with no great fanfare or major events. When we got out of the car, Riley said that she needed sunscreen on and I told her that I would put it on in a few minutes so that she could get some vitamin D from the sun first. She asked me what vitamin D was and I told her. In response, Avery absolutely shrieked "Noooooooooo! I don't like vitamin D!! I like chicken nuggets!!!!" I thought that was pretty darn funny.

Anyway, we get to hiking and about 1/4 mile in Rudi has to head back for a bathroom emergency. I've gotten used to these and we slowly walked on so that he could catch up. The Paint Mines consist of these awesome rock formations, and as we get farther in, I realize that Rudi will be totally unable to find us. We get into the rock formations and I think that there is a trail going into the rocks, and we start climbing up (mind you, Avery is strapped to my back) and by the time I realize that we are in fact not on a trail at all, it is too late to go down without sliding down and we keep going up. I'm not talking about a steep incline, or a big hill, I'm talking hand and foot climbing (with Avery strapped to my back, I mentioned that already, right?) We get to the top of the mesa only to be greeted by a field of cacti. I'm glad that I didn't let Riley wear her Teva sport sandals at this point. To my chagrin I realize that the trail is not on top of the mesa at all, and Avery wants to nurse. Did I mention the cacti? Anyway, off in the distance, I spot Rudi (thankfully wearing a red shirt) and try to flag him down. He sees us not. And keeps walking back and forth on the same path. So I try to call him on his phone (we got reception on the mesa, but not below). Doofus doesn't have his phone on him. Great.

So, we go up another mesa to hopefully find the trail. This one is steep but not hand and foot climbing steep. We get up to the top to find that we've landed ourselves into a huge nest of fire ants. We run through and I'm glad that I made Riley wear jeans instead of shorts. We finally find the trail (not our trail, but another one that will do just as good) and have to go down the slope to get to it. Through enormously tall grass and more cacti. There's a group of hikers on the trail when we start coming down and they look at us in amazement. A woman with a toddler on her back dragging along her trooper of a four-year-old, coming down off the mesa. Did I mention that leaving the trail is "strictly" prohibited? Going down again on the trail, we see Rudi again, still walking back and forth, not knowing which trail to find us on. We wave our arms and he finally sees us. We get down and Rudi doesn't really want to hike, but I make him see at least a little bit of the formations. He's disappointed that there is not a visitors center (and gift shop). He said he was tired. I say, who walked at LEAST five miles with a toddler on their back climbing rocks and mesas?

Oh yeah, I forgot the sunscreen after all and we all got burned.

So, I learned a few things today. One, although I don't work out I am still naturally somewhat physically fit. Yay, me. And although rather clumsy in daily life, I'm quite sure-footed in the wilderness. Two, babywearing rocks. We seriously would have been screwed if Avery were walking. Three, Rudi likes to think of himself as a rather enlightened mountain man, but he's so really not when it comes right down to it. Every trail or park he visits must have a visitor's center or gift shop. And when we pulled into the parking lot he said, where are the Paint Mines and I said that we obviously had to hike to them. He didn't like that. I mean, didn't we go there to hike? So, for him, all attractions must be right off the parking lot. Crazy.

This is Riley trying to fly away with her umbrella in the wind. She really really really tried.

On to other news:

I got straight A's again! (what?) Yes, straight A's! (wha-whaaaat?) Straight A's, baby, straight A's.

Riley's goldfish, so artfully named Goldie, is no more. Riley cried, Riley was sad. I was (dare I say?) glad to not have fish anymore. I always hate fish when we have them, and forget my dislike for them when we don't have them. Anyway, Riley asked if we cleaned out his tank if he would come back to life. I said no, she said why, I said dead is dead and dead things don't come back to life. She said "Well, vampires do it all the time!" I asked her where she learned that (although I already knew) and she said "Daddy's movies, of course!"

So the neighborhood kids were all outside yesterday playing with squirt guns. So I watch as my girls are trained in the art of gun-shooting. It made me cringe. But what says summer fun more than weapon play? Hmmm...

This blog has nothing to do with the children...

I had a perfect pair of jeans about 10 years ago when I worked at Gap. I loved them. I wore them a lot. They didn't last. Then Gap stopped making them. I haven't had a perfect pair since them. Passable, yes. Comfortable, yes. But perfect? No.

Until yesterday. I went to Kohls because my hitherto most comfortable jeans had developed a hole in the knee. I wasn't familiar with Kohls brands or sizing, but they were having a great sale. I gathered about half-dozen different brands and different sizes and headed to the dressing room. Lo and behold I FOUND THE PERFECT JEANS!! And for $11.99 (60% off)!! They are form-fitting, but not tight and restrictive, with just the perfect amount of stretch. And, ladies, you know how important the pockets are, right? (Rudi doesn't understand this) The pockets are usually too small, too big, too close together, or too far apart. Too high or too low. These pockets are absolutely perfectly placed on my butt. The waist band falls at the top of my hips, not so low to show underwear and not so high as to cause that gap in the waistband that has been the bane of my existence my entire life. And get this, they haven't stretched out and lost their shape (I hate that about jeans, you wear them for a few hours and pretty soon they are stretched out and falling off, or shapeless and frumpy-looking). I wore them the evening that I got them (for a few hours) and all day the following day, and they still fit the same as when I first bought them. And to add to the excitement, I fell asleep in them accidentally while nursing Avery to sleep and when I woke in the morning, they still had not stretched out! Holy cow, I'm in love.

I have to put them in the wash now, so pray for me and my jeans...If they fit as well when they've been washed I will head out to Kohls and get more (even if it's not in our budget, you can't pass up on fate!).

So, every time I pick Riley up from school, she is absolutely STARVING. I asked her why she didn't have snack at school (snack is self-serve and the children have the option of eating it). I always assumed that Riley was too busy to want to stop and snack at school. But Riley said, "Well, when I realized that I have to wash my own dishes, I decided that it wasn't worth it to have snack!" Ah, so young...and so lazy.

I forgot...I got a Montessori blog up and running at http://my-montessori.blogspot.com. It's got some pictures and downloadable files for materials that I've created.

So here are the pictures that I've been meaning to upload. Yipee.

So Mother's Day was pretty much a bust. This morning Rudi came to bed just as the girls were waking up and the first thing I heard this morning was "Daddy, I have poopy!" The second thing I heard was "Hon, since you're already getting up, Avery has a poop and man it stinks!" Yeah, happy Mother's Day right? We were supposed to go on a walk/hike today, but Rudi wasn't feeling well so we ended up going no where. And the girls were being such turds that I really didn't want to go anywhere with them anyway. Rudi said he's make it up to me on Wednesday when Riley doesn't have school, but I'm not holding my breath.

Avery has really hit the terrible twos these past few days and it really sucks. Add that to Riley's craziness and it's pretty unbearable around here. Seriously, I've tried everything with Riley and nothing is helping. Avery screams if Riley even looks at her funny, and Riley provokes her constantly. I feel like I'm living in the House of Crazy.

That's all I feel like writing about for now.

So, Riley has been very interested in wildlife, particularly since we went hiking in Cheyenne Mountain State Park in bear, mountain lion, and rattlesnake territory. She started asking questions about people and wild animals. I told her how to act if you see a bear, mountain lion, or rattlesnake on a hike. She asked me if bears eat people and I said, "well, usually only if the person does something really dumb, like leave food outside the tent while camping." Riley said "Then we're NOT on top of the food chain!"

Today, Riley is watching Bindi the Jungle Girl (she loves that show!) and she asked me why crocodiles are dangerous and I say because they have big teeth and small brains. She asked if they eat people and I said yes. She said again "Now I KNOW we are not the top of the food chain!!"

I've got a smart girl :)

First, I'll say that I took a bunch of pictures in RAW mode, which iPhoto does not support, so I'll have to find a way to get them up on the blog. So no photos yet...

Riley wakes up this morning and announces "Now I know that the tooth fairy is a professional! I tried to put a fake tooth under my pillow and this morning it was gone and I didn't get anything for it! And I KNOW the tooth fairy took it!"

Hmmm, what else? Oh, we tie-dyed the other day and had a lot of fun. The girls each tie-dyed three undershirt camisoles. I did the rubber bands and they squirted on the dye. They had a blast and the shirts came out really well. Actually, we used rubber bands on two shirts each and the third shirt we used just to use up the rest of the dye and the girls just squirted wherever and however they wanted. The downside was that the shirts had to be wrapped in plastic and set for 8 hours, so we did it at night and in the morning took the rubber bands off. Then we had to rinse them in the washer and such, and the girls had such a hard time waiting. After all was done, Riley and Avery both wore all three of their shirts within a couple of hours, running upstairs to show Daddy each one.

I also took a lot of pictures of Avery doing Montessori work, so I'm off to try and figure out how to use the raw pictures. Duh.