On record

Serious thoughts ahead -- use caution.

I know this isn't a living will but I thought I'd just lay it out here for the world to see: Should I ever end up incapacitated, I want my relatives to do with me what makes them most happy. Mr. Bickerson has stated to me that he would most certainly let my parents decide what to do.

I do want to make this very clear: Under no circumstances do I want anyone resembling Michael Schiavo's lawyer, George Feros, near me or my family. There is something very strange and wrong about him. That someone could prevent a mother from giving her own child water makes me sick to my stomach.

Inch worm

Tikka has been measuring things with a tape measure around the house. For the record, Peggy is bigger an a half. I am bigger 21; and Tikka herself is littler than four.

She also tried to give herself a snazzy mullet-style haircut this morning. I suppose Fantastic Sam might be willing to try to turn her hair don't into a more presentable do.

Terri Schiavo

Perspective

Happy Easter

We told the kids that the Easter Bunny only comes at nap time and only if there is peace and quiet in the house. Spidey wore a suit to church this morning and he complained of being so hot that you would think we'd wrapped him in plastic wrap. I didn't sing in choir this morning because the choir members had to be there from 8 a.m. to about 12:30 so Spidey took the opportunity to lay on the floor under the pew. He's better behaved when he's only with dad on Sundays.

But everyone is sleeping now (my favorite part of the day) and I've been perusing the news on the computer. I found this inspiring article for Easter. I like especially the Leonard Cohen lyric quoted at the end:

Forget your perfect offering; there is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.

Easter brunch at Wendy's? Why not? (Okay, I roasted a lamb rack for supper. Are you happy now?)

We have a rescue hero down!

There was drama in the kitchen early this morning:

More puppy pictures

I can't stop myself:



Spidey wants to walk her all day:



She looks like a border collie and she has the same energy level. Here's hoping we can be as smart as she is and teach her to be a good canine companion.

I don't like looking at it either

"Mommy? You get Peggy some unnerpants 'cause I don't wanna see his bottom anymore."

PEGGY!!!

OMG, how much coffee does this dog drink? I'm starting to think it would have been easier to have triplets!

Peggy

She's ours and it appears she has an eating disorder. Unlike our most recent dog, Ed, we are not going to get away with letting Peggy figure out how much to eat. I think this little puppy might explode if she's left alone with a large supply of food. She kind of exploded in her crate last night so I had the pleasure of giving a rowdy puppy a bath at 5:30 this morning.

Free to a good home

Should we? Can we?



She's quiet and non-nippy. Part Australian blue heeler/ part ubiquitous lab. Perhaps named Peggy?

The calm

before the storm

Happy Birthday Hank

We love you more than you can imagine (yes, more than 10 Minnetonka water towers-full).
Hank's movie

Kid art

This one is a portrait of a preschool friend.

I can picture her

20 years from now with a cup of coffee and a newspaper.

Ninja play elicits quasi-profound questions

"Mom, why can't we see the Easter Bunny when he lays his eggs?"

Not shake your booty

Tikka greeted me this morning with, "Mom, you get that shake your booty out of my closet for me?" I thought she wanted her grass skirt that goes with her bathing suit. She dances in it sometimes and she learned the phrase "shake your booty" from her aunt and uncle. I got it down for her.

"NO! Not that. You know that funny booty you got for me? That funny shake your booty in your closet?"

I headed for my bedroom where she could show me.

"NO MOM! Not there! Come wif me." She took me to the kitchen.

A-ha!

This is what she meant.

Nice ending

Is it possible for a two and four year old to whine continuously for 10 hours? It seems so. The cure this afternoon was a car ride around Lake Minnetonka to look at the kabillion dollar homes while the kids ate Wendy's Frosties even though it was 29 degrees outside. We caught this picture of the sunset on our way home.

sunshine.jpg

Wayne's world

In the car this morning on the way to take Spidey to preschool:

Tikka: Mom? Me take my mittens off now, peeze?

Me: Yes.

Tikka: Excellent. (And it was pretty much clearly articulated.)

Perky

They were making fun of it on Dave Barry's blog a week ago but this is a miracle; it's like cosmetic surgery without all the yuck.

I'm anticipating the questions: "Have you done something? Colored your hair? Got the braces off? Joined the Church of Scientology? Gone vegan? Something's different about you."

March 16 Update: Buy 'em while you can! I went back to get one more Body by Victoria Uplift Add-a-Cup and was informed that this particular bra is experimental and they might not be around forever. Experimental?

Photo of the day from Flickr

The Streets of San Francisco
Originally uploaded by bernardroth.

Just browsing photos tonight and happened upon this one. Makes me miss my friend and running buddy, Arnold.

What happened to ESP?

Seems like we used to hear about ESP a lot more often when I was a kid.

Breaking away

I hope I'm not the only one who likes to pretend to be in a bike race with the people riding next to me at the Y. There was a fellow cyclist next to me this morning. We both got on our bikes at the same time. I made a goal in my head to not quit before he did nor let my RPMs dip below his. I could glance over and see the display on his bike; his heart rate and cadence. Couldn't see what level he was using. I was keeping up without having a heart attack and my feet were spinning faster than his were. After about 45 minutes I started to send messages to him to quit using my powers of ESP. He wouldn't listen and he kept going. Damn it. I was tired and I had to pee but I was not going to let this guy win the YMCA Stationary Bicycle Criterium.

Turned out it was all for naught as I was unceremoniously yanked from the race at 52 minutes due to a poopy diaper courtesy of my daughter. Better luck next time, I guess.

Did I mention that my opponent was approximately 70-75 years old? :-)

Hoop dreams

I'm having one of those heart-is-bursting-with-love days. This more than makes up for all the vomit.

Spidey started a basketball class at the Y yesterday. Although he has been talking about this class nonstop since we visited a couple of weeks ago, when the actual day arrived and it was time to go, he put up a big fight. There was just too great a chance that he wouldn't be perfect at everything from the start. He was very nervous about being the only one on the team who didn't possess any basketball skills. His attitude often seems to be "Why try if you can't be the best at it from the start?"

So anyway, being evil parents, we forced him to go. The two volunteer dad coaches couldn't have been nicer. Spidey is on the Green Team which represents Responsibility according to the YMCA logo. Every other kid could already dribble. Crap, most of them looked like they'd already been to some intensive basketball camp. (That, or their dads all played professionally.) And then there was Spidey. He has two non-athletes for parents (endurance running aside). His parents have ZERO skills when it comes to your regular organized sports. He tried so hard to get the dribbling down. They practiced dribbling for a long time; dribbling in one place, dribbling with one hand then the other, then walking and dribbling, running and dribbling. He's got a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to catch up to the other players but HE LOVED IT!

Spidey just came out of his room with a drawing in his hand.



It's the YMCA, a basketball court, all the color-coded teams, and (most importantly in my opinion) "the door where you go in." He said he wants to take it next week to "give to my coaches." And now he's out on the deck dribbling, dribbling, dribbling, and dribbling.

I just can't explain how proud I am that, although he was so obviously anxious -- in tears -- about this new thing, he did it, he found out he liked it, and he wants to go back.

UPDATE:

We all went to the playground this afternoon. He's such a precious little dude:

As the stomach turns

My best friends. We've become so close over the past five days. One highlight from our stomach virus week was Tikka's delight in identifying lunch items in her crib: Look, Mom! My 'paghetti-Os! A peach!"

I'm so glad it's over.

Something like 911

It has come to my attention that, in addition to practicing fire safety and having an emergency home exit plan, it would behoove families everywhere to have an emergency plan for stomach viruses. The four year-old and the two year-old need to rehearse what to do in the event of vomit and explosive diarrhea while I need to call back Ritzy Clean to ask them to put a little more clean in their ritzy.

UPDATE: I am thankful for a large, front-loading washing machine. Spidey likes to sleep with about 250 "friends" every night and you can fit a surprisingly large number of stuffed animal friends into the washer.

UNRELATED UPDATE: I thought I left my watch at the Y yesterday when I couldn't find it at home. I called and described it and where it might be and a nice lady said she'd go look in the locker room for me and call back. She called about 45 minutes later, said she'd found it where I said I thought it would be and she would put it in an envelope with my name on it at the front desk.

I just took a load of laundry out of the washer and there was my watch.

Hmm.

Technology is amazing

Will we even recognize the world we live in in 10 years? Amazing, I said.