Blanket wars

Linus, I mean Tara, is very fond of her blanket. I think she'd take it to school if she could fit it in her back pack. I think I saw her trying to do that once...

She drags it around the house, depositing it wherever it falls. So, to counter this I made the rule that it had to be on their made beds - don't take it off your bed, kids. Oh and by the way Emily has picked up Tara's habit and also drags her blanket around, too. Well, the rule lasted about 10 minutes. Just long enough for me to leave their rooms. Out came the blankets off the freshly made beds. When questioned they both feigned surprise. "Oh... this blanket?...Oh.. you see.... I thought you meant.... another blanket." So they put it back for about 10 minutes. I guess they think I'll forget the rule by then.
So then Aunt Dee bought them both Disney blankets. Perfect, I thought! Now they can drag these around instead of the huge comforters. Well, they love the blankets for sure, but now they drag both around the house. They pull dolls on them, sit on them, pull each other on them, cuddle with them, the list goes on and on.

I know, I thought. I will put the comforters away in the basement and tell them they are being washed for a long, long time. Every hour on the hour, kind of like a grandfather clock. "Are the blankets washed yet?"

New tactic. I know! I will put them away for the summer. "You don't need those heavy blankets in the summer, do you kids?"
"YES WE MOST CERTAINLY DO", they added with a hint of panic in their voices.
I give up. Blankets abound. Blankets in the living room and on the kitchen floor. I picked my battle-and lost- and now I am admitting defeat.

Ten on Tuesday

These ten things are the minutia that is my life.

• When you feel stressed, it doesn't help at all if a stranger tells you that you look stressed.
• I feel vindicated about one of my assignments. Nobody else knew how to do the stuff either. Thank goodness for my dad and Jay who sat with me to explain it before class. Then the prof had the NERVE to say it was so easy! I could feel the class bristle and one woman looked like she was going to hit him outright.
• My mind is so full of weird info, it actually FEELS FULL.
• I need to roll with it. I am not doing a good job of that. I feel like if something can go wrong, it will; so I make myself crazy. Ugh.
• It's midterm week. Enough said.
• Emily sat for 11 assessment tests. Bless her heart. I owe her. What she doesn't know is this is just the beginning. She may not be so eager to help in a week or two. I've got to think of some really good bribes.
• Tara walks in her sleep.
• I love Hell's Kitchen, Big Love, America's Got Talent and Little People, Big World.
• Jay's been trying to explain to the kids that they can't go to every theme park and city that they see advertised on TV.
• Millie sheds so much that it's like having two dogs.

Summer fun

The kids are having fun this summer so far. They were in hog heaven watching a Naked Brother's Band marathon a couple of days ago. They only have the attention to watch a bit at a time and then run off. But if I change the channel, watch out! " I was watching that!!!!" Yah right, you were watching it from the swings outside. :) It was like when I was a kid and my dad would fall asleep in front of the news. My brother and I would creep up to change the channel....click....click..Suddenly he was awake."I was watching that!!!" I can't win.

It's fun to listen to Em and Tara's conversation while watching this show. The oldest member of the band is 12 and the youngest is 8. They both like the 8 year old. The one who's 12 is "way too old". The picture is of them watching the show and playing on the floor.

They both got new shoes the other day. They had their feet measured and are essentially the same size. This did not go over well with Emily. She insisted on a 1/2 size bigger shoe. It's just not right to be the same size as your younger sister, I guess. :)

Jay is at work now. The girls want him to come home and make them pictures and put songs in their "IPads".

"WHHHHWEEEREEE's Daddy?"

"But kids, Mommy's here!!" I say kind of pathetically.

There is always someone who is the fun parent. Apparently that's not me.

Emily asked Jay to put pictures of her on a page from when Tara was born until now. We go through a lot of printer ink in this house!

Posting is so much more fun than the stuff I actually need to get done. Distraction is the key!

The picture above is from around Mother's day. Every couple of weeks Emily wants another updated picture of her and Millie and Tara. Jay always does such a cute job pasting the pictures all together. This time Em said she thought her hair looked like the 60's. Ha ha. She did experience so much of the 60's afterall! So Jay put the 60's on the picture. Then Emily puts the pictures up on her wall. They're a riot, my family.

You've gotta love Jay for doing these pictures for the girls.

Tara just came in and asked why she has sticky hair. Now it's off to bathe them. That is really kicking me out of the fun parent category. I even make their clothes match. I am absolutely no fun at all. ha ha.

TV is not the devil

Isn't it weird how TV gets a bad rap; most people would say not to watch much and yet we all do? I think TV is the best thing since sliced bread. We can see a country without ever going there. We can watch movies and be moved. We can learn about the news. Investigative news exposes corruption. We can just be plain entertained. And there is always the escape factor. What's not to like?

I don't understand people who villify it and blanketly say, "TV rots your brain." Some of my favorite memories involve watching TV with Jay and friends. I guess anything done to excess is bad but why is reading considered so much more proper of an activity? If you are relaxing after work, what's the difference what you do for fun? "Oh, you're not getting exercise," or "You aren't using your imagination." Bull pucky. I have a better imagination because of what I've been able to see on TV than what I can muster only in my small window of experience. And many people would/wouldn't exercise regardless of their TV watching. When I lived in Luxembourg and the TV wasn't in English, I really missed it. Did I find other things to do? Yep. If given the choice, though, I like watching something in the evening to wind down before bed and hate that many people, including the media itself, want to make me feel guilty about it. It's also very nice to watch a show while folding laundry or peeling potatoes. Oh, and I let the kids watch their fill, too. They naturally do other things as well. It's not the forbidden fruit and it shouldn't be. Just my two cents.

I am getting used to that very uncomfortable feeling of never really being done with my work. Well, tonight I am as "done" as I can be.

I have to do a very in depth assessment on a real kid for one of my classes. It just so happens that I have a couple of kids lying around that I can use! Now I know why I had kids; they are my lab rats! I'm just kidding....sorta. hee hee.

For another class I have to increase a behavior and document it with interventions and graphs blah blah blah. I was thinking of increasing water consumption as one idea. It has to be measurable, blah blah blah. Oh my gosh, I am starting to bore myself in this entry!

Millie got washed by Jay today and then he took her to get her nails trimmed.

She later proceeded to roll in dirt to make sure none of the grooming took.

Teeth are flying everywhere

Yesterday a tooth came out in the playroom. Today another tooth came out at Walmart. Tonight I told her to go brush the few teeth she has left. She laughed. I love her bald little mouth. :)