Wine and Cartoons

Posted By andrea on June 30, 2009

I took the kids to a fishing store to pick out fishing poles. This seemed like a nice family activity. And it was if you look past the tour my son made me go on around the store. I was briefly reminded of the bait shop my dad used to take me to. All I can remember about the dingy little store was the owner. He was a gigantic man and I believe his cat had one eye. Or maybe he had a dog with one eye. Or maybe the dog didn’t have a tail.  I do know that whatever animal he had, drank beer with him. I used to enjoy going to the store with my dad, it always resulted in grape soda and a candy bar. My mom was pretty strict with the no candy no soda rule. Aiden took me around the whole store and pointed out every piece of equiptment that he could see and then explained what it did. Did you know that a hook, hooks things? Oh and a net, nets things? I am on this tour with a baby on my hip while carrying two fishing poles. One of the poles was Barbie themed. I think Barbie increases your chances of catching a fish, if you indeed try to catch a fish. Madeleine has a different style of fishing.  She has Keith bait her hook.  She then holds her pole for 30 seconds after which she passes it onto me so she can practice her skipping. Who knew fishing was so stress free?

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Posted By andrea on June 26, 2009

The older two just finished the first session of swimming lessons. Madeleine swims like a mermaid. She loves the water and has taken to it like well, a mermaid. It fills me with pride when I see her do her best. Aiden is a pretty strong swimmer too. When he stays in the water. Most of the time he chose to spend his time getting in and out complaning that he had to go to the bathroom. Take a kid to the bathroom which they are wearing a type of wet suit is a nightmare. not fun. Then when he gets back to his lesson he begins to scream “don’t make me do it, I can’t swim”. All while he is swimming on his back by himself. I swear to you he sounds like a dying cow, a screeching eel, a beaten crow. Horribly embarressing. I spent a lot of time hiding from him. Which is hard to do when you are pushing a stroller. Then, the last swimming lesson of the session he jumps off the diving board alone. I almost held him under water. Unbelievable. I was going to let Aiden off the hook and not make him do the next session but nope. He is learning to swim if it kills us both. I love him enough to put myself through torture.

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Posted By andrea on June 26, 2009

So I let Aiden choose his own haircut. Which led to a slight husband/wife disagreement. Keith was under the impression that I had them shave the sides bald and was horrified that his sweet boy had turned into a hard core punk rocking skateboarder. Not even close. He looks like this….This is pretty great if you ask me.  I have aways been a fan of the modified mohawk on kids. I tried to do it to Charlotte by gluing Aiden’s cut hair to her head but the salon didn’t have super glue. Regular glue is not going to cut it in that situation.  Madeleine also had her hair trimmed. She wanted it trimmed “long long long, to the floor”. I told her hair cuts don’t really work like that. Maybe I will get her a wig. I should have just grabbed Aiden’s cut hair and wove my own wig. It would have been totally green.

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Posted By andrea on June 21, 2009

At 8:30 tonight I realized I hadn’t called my dad for father’s day. The time held signifigance for me because 8:30 was around the time that my ballet class usually ended. It ended at that time on a Wednesday for about five years. The part where the signifigance comes in? He forgot every single week. Ok, not every single week but so many times I would end up outside of my dance studio until the teacher closed the place down. I guess you could call this a typical dad thing. But my dad has never been typical. Ever.  While other girls disconnected from their dad’s I never once felt that way.  I call my dad as much as I call my mom. More I think because my mom does not like talking on the phone. She is so weird that way. Anyway, I inherited my sense of humor from him. When I was in middle school I invited a new friend over for dinner. Spaghetti I think, because we also had garlic bread. My dad grabbed a piece of garlic bread and pretended to be attacked by the yeast monster. This behavior is awesome for your social life. Not to mention he used (still) to mow the lawn wearing cut offs from the ’70s and a white bandanda around his head ninja style. Again, I pretended like I had no clue who the lawn mowing ninja was. He also informed the whole color guard my senior year  I was gay ( I’m not, not that there it anything wrong with that) on his way into a school meeting. Sigh. I plan on doing things like that to my children. Hey what goes around…needs to be spread further. But my dad was/is great when it came to the big stuff. Like bringing me my bathing suit so I could go swimming after work even though he had cut his hand open and need medical attention. Now that I type it out it sounds rather silly and he probably should have told my friend Karen and I to get bent. He wouldn’t say that. Yes, he would. Does. My dad also told me to get my shit together when I started crying before we walked down the isle. When I had Aiden and Madeleine he was the first parent out here to help us. How many daughers can say that? He also has no problems taking care of the kids. Not to mention he does dishes, cleans under my appliances and makes sure my dryer lint thing is always clear. Sometimes I leave extra lint in there so he feels helpful. I love my dad and I have really come to realize you are never to0 old to need him. Writing this out makes me realize how lucky I am.

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Posted By andrea on June 21, 2009

The kids answered a bunch of questions for you!

1. What is your dad’s name:

Aiden: Daddy

Madeleine: Kef

Charlotte: the sound of muching

2. How old is daddy?

Aiden: I don’t really know

Madeleine: I don’t know

Charlotte: Crying

3. What is daddy’s favorite food?

Aiden: Bacon

Madeleine: Pizza

Charlotte: Crawling away

4. What is daddy’s favorite song?

Aiden: Every song he has in his truck

Madeleine: The bathtub song and even the window song.

Charlotte: She just ate some dog fur.

5. What is daddy’s favorite thing to do?

Aiden: Spend time with me.

Madeleine: Play ponies.

Charlotte: sleep

6. What is daddy’s favorite color?

Aiden: Green

Madeleine: Blue

Charlotte: She fell asleep

7. What is daddy’s favorite drink?

Aiden: Soda

Madeleine: Soda

Charlotte; Still sleeping

8. What is daddy’s favorite sport?

Aiden: Hockey

Madeleine: Hockey but really I don’t know.

Charlotte:

9. What does daddy do during the day?

Aiden: going to work and thinking about us.

Madeleine: drive to work

Charlotte:

10. Why do you like daddy?

Aiden: He gives us candy and junk food.

Madeleine: Yeah, a lot of candy

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Posted By andrea on June 20, 2009

I am now fully into summer with the kids. Which is great. I love summer. Except for the humidity. I don’t care for how gigantic it makes my hair. I start off the summer looking like this…

And slowly with Maryland humidity I end of looking like this…

Except for playing the violin. Everyone knows I can’t play a musical instrument. In fact my parents gave away my clarinet for fear I might play it again someday. Yes, I am so unmusical I am banned from singing with my family instead,  they give me a tambourine. But I am only allowed to hold it.

This summer has been incredibly wet. Between the rain and the constant humidity the kids and I are going a little insane. I have them both in swimming lessons with the hope it might be sunny enough to swim sometime during the summer. Both are pretty strong swimmers. Madeleine is confident and fearless. Aiden is strong but does not like being cold. He tries to avoid being cold by claiming he has to use the bathroom. He seems to be missing the idea that getting out of the pool makes you colder. His other neat trick is to swim on his back alone while screaming he can’t swim and he needs his mom. Unfortunately his mother (me) is usually being hidden by a group of other moms. They let me sit on a bench and then the huddle in front of me. Lovely women moms are. I doubt you’d see a group of attorneys working together so well.

In case you are wondering why I don’t give them umbrellas and send them out into the rain?

Lightening. Keith would be pissed if I contributed to the electrocution of his children. I guess with him having his Masters in Elctrical Engineering it would be pretty embarrassing. Not sure how we’d explain that one.

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Posted By andrea on June 11, 2009

If you have heard the one about the mom who likes to make hard boiled eggs for her children. They eat eggs so much that there is a constant supply of hardboiled eggs in the fridge door. I have shown both children where I keep the hardboiled

Maddie pre potty stage. HA! Kid take that!

eggs or the “hot eggs” as Madeleine calls them. Two weeks ago I was preparing the “hot egg” for Charlotte to eat.  Madeleine requested one as well so I told her to grab me an egg from the fridge. Can you guess where this is going? Well I was really surprised when I went to crack the egg she gave me and found out she did not hand me a “hot egg”. I asked her why she grabbed me a cold egg, she informed me that I they were all cold because they were in the fridge and I should probably cook them first. This coming from someone who learned to use a toilet under two years ago. Kid, you can tell me like it is when you can vote. Or drink. You know what, save your opinions.

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Posted By andrea on June 11, 2009

A few days ago I have begun to let the older two play in the front yard alone. Gasp! I also leave the BDD (big dumb dog) outside with them as a “watch dog”. The only thing that dog is capable of watching is paint drying. Seriously. She is terrified of the following: vacuums, whistles, Keith, most all of Aiden’s battery operated toys, Keith, paper bags chasing her, and being chased by a soda can full of pennies. This is the same dog that once pee’d on my foot after Aiden chased and then shot her with a play bow and arrow set. So when I asked Aiden what to do if he was approached by a stranger, I was not prepared for him to answer. “Meadow”.

Why am I not surprised? This coming from the same kid who will call “991″ in case of emergency.

Aiden and Meadow

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Posted By andrea on June 9, 2009

    And she literally flew away. Yeah, cheesy I know but…I could not resist. Keith took my babies away for the day and here is the part where I should say I missed them. But honestly, I didn’t. I can count on my hands the number of times they have been away from. I do this frequently, count all the times they have left me. About ten times in six years for Aiden. Ten times. That could be why he still tries to sneak in my room at night. I swear it will become awkward when he is 16. Madeleine, my sweet Madeleine uses her blankie as an umbilical cord from me to her.

So Keith and a friend of his took the kids flying for the day. It. Was. Awesome. Even better my kids had a great adventure without me. I mean, isn’t that the point of raising kids? So they learn to grow up, be brave, and experience life? I don’t always need to be there. In fact, I think I might start ignoring them at least 50% of the day from now on. Enjoy some of Keith’s mad photography skills. (Oh and for you old people, mad is slang for “really great”)

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Posted By andrea on June 9, 2009

Three weeks ago Aiden asked me if he could do an art project. I was completely behind this until I was given a list of his supplies… This is a direct quote…

“Ok, I am going to need some dollars and some googlely eyes”… It suddenly came to me that he was going to build this:

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