Best mommy in the world

Conversation with Roo while making Signing Time Valentine's with him:

Roo: You are the best mommy in the world.
Me: Because I printed Signing Time Valentines?
Roo: Yes, because you work for Signing Time and that is really cool.
Me: Aw thanks!
Roo: And do you know who is the second coolest mommy?
Me: Who?
Roo: Rachel.
Me: She is pretty cool.
Roo: In your opinion, you might think she is the coolest because she started Signing Time.
Me: But not in your opinion?
Roo: No, in my opinion you are still the coolest and that won't change.

At least not until he is a teen. :o) Sure love my little guy!

Blue's Clues and cakes

***scene - family dinner***

Sugar - Daddy can I have some Blue's Clues?
Brad - Do you mean cous cous?

and a little later at dessert...

Sugar - Daddy can I have some cake?
Brad - Do you mean crepe?

Ah, a child's interpretation!

Twinkle, twinkle little star...

This is the song I usually dread most when teaching ASL signs. The sign most children learn for diamond is HIGHLY inappropriate in ASL.

Imagine my shock today at church when I start signing Twinkle, Twinkle with Sugar and she signs said HIGHLY inappropriate sign.

"Sweetie, that isn't the correct way to sign diamond. This is how to do it." *shows correct way*
"No. It is like this." *signs HIGHLY inappropriate sign*
"That isn't the way. You need to do it like this." *shows correct way*
"No. My teacher said to do it like this." *again signs HIGHLY inappropriate sign*

I finally told her we'd talk about it later just to get her to stop signing it wrong. eek!

***to sign DIAMOND, make a "D" with your right hand (fingers all touching the thumb except the pointer finger is up) and tap it on your left ring finger, where a diamond would be.

Here are some online dictionary results:

Click to sign DIAMOND (the object, like what is in the sky)

Click to sign the shape DIAMOND

Choices

*scene - dinner table having a family meal, Sugar wanting to be excused*

Brad: "Sugar, you need to sit at the table for dinner time."
Sugar: "But I want to be excused..."
B: "You have 2 choices, you can sit at the table or you can go to bed now."
S: "Daddy, I want 3 choices."
*me snickering*
B: "Okay, you can 1)sit at the table 2) go to bed or 3) go sit in bed.
*me hysterically laughing now*

Ahhhh, family dinner time...

Brownies versus Vai

On Sunday, we went to a church meeting where Vai Sikahema was speaking. I listen to Sport's Talk Radio every day (much to my husband's and children's displeasure), so I was quite familiar with who he is.

We got to listen to his lovely wife first, and then he gave a great talk afterwards. It was wonderful to hear him. Since Roo really adores Andy Reid (because he ALWAYS shakes Roo's hand), I thought he'd like to meet another Eagle.

Not so much. As soon as the final "amen" was said, the kids bolted to the brownies in the back of the church.

*sigh*

When daddy is away...

I made the kids a dentist appointment 6 months ago. And wouldn't you know, Brad is working today. Isn't it just so much fun to take 3 kids to the dentist office? Oooo, party!

Sugar screamed, and by screamed I mean, the windows are shaking, people are looking for ear plugs, I have to sit in the chair, wrap my legs around her, have the boys hold a leg, screaming. So much fun. I can't wait to do it again in 6 months. Ugh.

*the bright side is 3 kids and 0 cavities*

When you are married to a doctor...

Today I was teaching a Sunday School class to 4 year old kids, one of which was my daughter.

I had printed my lesson out on some scratch paper we have in a pile. While at church, I was looking at my lesson for a specific scripture. Suddenly, Jamo asks, "What is THAT?!"

I looked on the back of my lesson, and what is on it but pictures of tracheas being sutured and the accompanying research notes. Lovely. Good thing it wasn't a 4 yr old that saw the picture. They might have been traumatized for quite awhile.

Smart little cookie

*scene - Scrubs on the TV on pause. Me typing an email. Sugar on the couch getting ready for bed.*

Sugar: "Mom, why aren't you watching this?"
Me: "I'm waiting for daddy."
Sugar: "Why?"
Me: "I love him."
Sugar: "Do you love me?"
Me: "I love you tons, baby girl!"
Sugar: "Does that mean I get to stay up and watch this with you?"

Nice try, little one.

11 years

Yesterday, Brad and I celebrated being married 11 years. And I couldn't be happier. I sure love that man.

I thought I'd tell this story, just to show how far I've come in 11 years. ;)

We decided to go out to a really nice restaurant for our anniversary. I found the sitter, and since Brad has much more experience with the restaurants here, he was going to find the place to eat. He made reservations for 7 pm and we were going to walk around the Christmas village for a little while before eating.

But, when you are married to a doctor, things tend to not always go as planned. He called me at 5 to say that he was still with a patient coming out of surgery and he might be late. I said it would be fine if we skipped the walk and just went to dinner. But then he called again, saying he was going to be even later than planned, could I drop off the kids, bring him a change of clothes, etc. Years ago, that might have stressed me out, especially since we were having plumbing issues, Roo broke the silverware drawer, and there was typical dinner chaos. Now, however, I've adjusted to the uncertainty that is life with a doctor. 11 years and I'm getting the hang of this gig. ;o)

We went to an amazing restaurant. It was so gorgeous in there! The architecture alone was stunning. I told the hostess it was our 11 year anniversary. She asked me if I got married at 10 because I looked way too young to be married that long. I didn't tell her I am 34. haha!

We got a Wagyu steak, Chateau potatoes, King crab gnocchi and a fabulous chocolate souffle for dessert. We shared all of it and still couldn't finish it. Incredibly delicious.

I love being married to the man of my dreams and look forward to the rest of eternity with him!!

4 yr old!

Wowza. My "baby" is 4. I keep forgetting she isn't a baby anymore. Sigh.

We had lots of fun for her birthday. We went to an older kid version of Chuck E Cheese (batting cages, mini-golf, laser tag, basketball court, Jupiter Jumps, arcade, etc). Roo was invited to a party there, and I figured if I was going to drive for 40 minutes just to get there, I might as well make a family activity of it all. We all had a blast and thankfully Brad didn't get paged. *phew*

Then we had a spontaneous birthday party with some friends. They even made a cute banner for her. We had pizza and crab legs. I'm not usually a sea food person, but these were really good! And, I continued my tradition of letting the birthday kid do the cake decorating. She did a great job.

Happy birthday, little pea!

Swedish meatballs

Sugar has a friend in school with a Swedish mother. They are super sweet and invited us over for lunch after school today.

The girls had a blast playing and I loved talking to Sonia. So much fun learning about Sweden. She asked if we'd like Swedish meatballs for lunch. I said sure! I was thinking of the mushroomy gravy kinda meatballs that I usually make when I say Swedish meatballs. It turns out, in Sweden, they don't really put marinara or gravy on their pasta. They put ketchup. They use ketchup for pasta and not much else. I was a little skeptical, but it was quite tasty! Who knew?!

Giving thanks!

I have so much to be thankful for today!

Brad's dad is here for Thanksgiving from OK. He took us out to a delicious Indian restaurant the other day. Yum. My aunt Stacy came down from NYC too. She has been incredibly helpful which has been fabulous since RA has my knee looking like a grapefruit. Sugar just adores her too. Stacy has been having Sugar help with cooking and she is just in heaven. Plus since our house is tiny, space is at a premium. Stacy has been sleeping in Sugar's room, and she just LOVES having a roommate.

And for Thanksgiving dinner, we are having another last minute addition, missionaries. We aren't sure where we will have everyone sitting, but nothing warms the heart like a full house, right? Oh, and we have Jasper the dog visiting too. :o)

It has been snowing off and on this morning, which has been beautiful. And Brad has been able to use his medical expertise. First, he used a needle from his kit to inject the turkey with seasonings. Then he drained my knee of fluid. I had been fighting letting him do it for a long time. Draining just hurts so dang much that I didn't want to associate him with incredible pain. But, the pain of the fluid finally outweighed the pain of the drain. He managed to get 10 cc's out, but it hardly made a dent in the fluid level. Looks like I'll be going in for another knee drain next week.

Please Touch Museum

Sugar and I went to the Please Touch Museum on Saturday while the boys went to the Constitution Center for a cub scout activity. It took us 40 minutes just to get through the toy store. Then we spent another hour at the Water Works. After that, we made it through the rest of the museum pretty fast. (Pretty fast being another 2 hours) She really loved the grocery store. She told me I was the sister and kept telling me no when I asked for stuff. LOL! She had fun loading her cart, going through check-out, and then putting the groceries away. When did all of that stop being fun for me? It was so much fun to just spend some girl time with her. I can't wait to take the boys!

Long time, no see!

Yes, I had a birthday last week. Another year older and wiser too!

And the new press release is out for the new Signing Time Associate Directors. Look! It's me! Yay!

This weekend is the Neighborhood Toy Store Day! Check out a local toy store near you! And if you are in the Philly area, please come to the Please Touch Museum. There will be tons of fun activities and characters to entertain the kiddos. Christmas is coming up and it would be great if we could support our locally owned toy stores! Hope to see you there!

Lots of pictures!

Wow. It has been awhile since I've put up pictures. So, I put up 9, yes 9, slide shows over on the Cookie Monster blog.

What's over there? Well, lots of stuff: Halloween, first day of school, Roo's birthday, me Dragon Boating, the zoo, Sugar at the farm, golfing... lots. You are under no obligation to go check it out. But if you want on and don't yet have an invite, let me know.

For Halloween, I was sick (I colored my nose read and put purple bags under my eyes) and Brad was my doctor. Jamo was Anakin Skywalker. Roo was Bidoof, a Pokemon. Sugar got a horse where she is two of the legs. We went to our church last night to trick or treat from room to room. We filled our room with balloons. Quite a mistake as it turned into a mosh pit and the older kids weren't always gentle with the young ones. But, the kids liked it.

Roo is 7!

Well, it has been awhile, eh? We had a fabulous time with my mommy in town. We love it when we have visitors!

Roo had his 7th birthday party. We caved and took him to Chuck E Cheese. Once or twice a year can't be too bad, right? It is actually getting a lot better now that the kids are older.

I have his SUPER cute pictures over on the Cookie blog (let me know if you need an invite please!). Sonja did an amazing job!

What a drag!

The Dragon Boat Festival got delayed.

Statement Issued by Local Official:
"The City’s Emergency Management Center is predicting devastating flooding along the Schuylkill River, perhaps as great as anything we’ve had in the past 25 years (this includes Hurricane Floyd). They are predicting flood waters reaching the CSX RR tracks and possibly into the neighborhoods."

Here are some stats that were passed along to me:

For the month of September, the river was running at less than 1,000 cfs (cubic feet per second).
Right now it's running at 76,300 cfs
Anything over 18,000 cfs, and all paddle sports are PROHIBITED

I am quite sad as it was the only Saturday Brad has off in October. Now, I either need to find a sitter at 6 am on a Saturday or not go. Boo.

Comedy of Errors

Wow. Nights like this are the reason my blog exists.

Brad convinced me that we really needed to go to a Japanese Sushi bar for Philly's Restaurant Week. Philly has some amazing places to eat, and getting them for a discount, well, that is hard to beat. And truthfully, the food was quite delicious! I still can't believe I ate an entire meal with chopsticks (except for the Hot and Sour soup) and that I ate so much raw fish. But, I love to try new things, so why not.

I digress. We left the restaurant before the dessert came so that I could get back in time for my first belly dancing class here. We walked down the street to the car, only the car wasn't there. Have I mentioned I hate Philly parking? (He was 6 inches into the No Parking zone. So petty) Our friends at the restaurant drove us to the impound lot, in a lovely area with such businesses as Club Risque and Show and Tel. Nice. Our friends played football out in the parking lot while Brad and I waited in a ridiculous line to get our car back. I can't even explain in words how incredible ridiculous the entire system was. Wait in line to pay the fee. Then wait in another line to fill out paper work. Then be told you need insurance and registration which is obviously in the car, so get it and wait again. There was one of those motivational posters on the wall that said 'Serenity', and I think it had the opposite effect on me. The irony was thick. During this waiting, our friend Jim took a football to the eye, which pushed his glasses into his eyelid. It was quite gross actually. I've been exposed to enough blood and guts to have a pretty strong stomach, but I couldn't look at it for very long.

This is a great time to have 2 ENT residents, and ER resident, and a PA hanging out. However, they wouldn't let Brad get his "tool bag" out of the car. We had to fill out a request form, and yes, wait in line again, just to get permission to get it. We were all trying to convince Jim, that yes, he needed stitches or something on his eye when the ER resident said, "Don't worry, Jim, I'll stitch you up right." Jim responded with, "Okay, listen, nothing personal, but if anyone is going to be stitching up my face, it is going to be the Facial Plastic Surgeon. I'm sorry, but if I have the choice, I'm going with Brad." We couldn't help it, Cathy and I just busted up laughing.

I eventually got the paperwork necessary to get the bag out of the car and ran it to Cathy. We had just used some Dermabond at church on Sunday when Roo had a lovely gash above his eye from hitting a pew. But, thankfully Brad had another Dermabond in the bag and they were able to close up his eye.

Now the problem was that we didn't have a registration card, only the sticker. Long story short-ish, we were at the impound lot for 2 hours. And I never made it to belly dancing.

Doctors can be pretty useful people to have around. Especially when they have tool bags. LOL!

Daily rituals

Sugar and I have a game we play. Every day. She tells me she is tired and she wants me to go lay down with her. I say okay. Then she squeals, "I'm gonna take your pillow!!" as she dashes up the stairs. My gimpy RA knee and I get up the stairs with much less agility. I get to my room and she is laying on my pillow, giggling hysterically.

I lay down next to her and we lay there for a minute, maybe two, before she says, "I'm thirsty".

"I think you need to go get a drink."
"Why, mommy?"
"So I can steal my pillow back."

Then we will spend about 5 or 10 minutes of me pretending to sleep, her pretending to get off the bed, etc, until at some point I ended up tickling her and dangling her over the bed where the lava pit is. Don't worry though, the lava pit has a side walk.

Today we were Baby Armadillo and Mommy Armadillo. I haven't been allowed to call her by her name all day. And her jelly sandwich had grass and leaves in. 'But just pretending, mommy." At night, she snuck into my bed. I picked her up to take her back to her room and she started whining so I said, "Sugar, you sleep in your bed." "Okay, but I'm not Sugar, I'm Baby Armadillo." At 4 a.m. LOL!

Oh, to be 3 and carefree!

My son

In case there was any doubt that Roo is my son, he said this before dinner tonight:

"There is nothing better than spending the evening reading a good book."

Yup. Definitely my son!